Myanmar junta confine monks to monasteries

BY OUR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT

1 October, 2007

Soldiers and police have taken control of the streets of Myanmar, where pro-democracy activists have been staging relentless protests against the country’s ruling military junta.

Troops have sealed off Buddhist monasteries and cut internet access to the public.

As the government’s crackdown entered the fourth day, the streets of Yangon were empty of the mass gatherings that had peacefully challenged the regime daily for nearly two weeks, leaving only small groups of activists to be chased around by security forces.

Thousands of Buddhist monks have been the driving force behind the protests, but they have now been besieged in their monasteries in the two biggest cities of Yangon and Mandalay. Troops are standing guard outside the monasteries, blocking nearby roads to keep the monks isolated.

Soldiers and police are stationed on almost every street corner in Yangon. Shopping malls, grocery stores, and public parks were closed, and only very few residents are venturing out.

The streets of Yangon and Mandalay are quiet.

Many residents in Yangon said they feared that the government’s crackdown had weakened a movement that began nearly six weeks ago as small protests over hike in fuel prices and grew into demonstrations by tens of thousands of people demanding an end to 45 years of military rule in Myanmar.

The detention of the monks has dealt a serious blow to the uprising since the monks carry high moral authority in the predominantly Buddhist nation of 54 million people. In fact, the protests had burgeoned when the monks joined in.

Hundreds of people have been arrested, including Win Mya Mya, an outspoken member of the country’s main Opposition group, the National League for Democracy.

Meanwhile, anger over the Myanmar military junta’s assaults on democracy activists is gathering momentum around the globe. Protesters denounced Myanmar’s military generals at gatherings across the United States, Europe and Asia.

The White House has urged “all civilized nations” to pressure Myanmar’s leaders to end the crackdown. “They don’t want the world to see what is going on there,” White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said.

However, analysts are of the opinion that countries with major investments in Myanmar, such as China and India, may not agree to take any punitive measures against the junta. The analysts also noted that the junta has long ignored criticism of its tough handling of dissidents.

Though the crackdown has raised fears of a repeat of a 1988 democracy uprising that in which some 3,000 protesters were killed, the junta appeared relatively restrained so far.

The government has said police and soldiers killed 10 people, including a Japanese journalist, in the first two days of the crackdown, but dissident groups put the number as high as 200.

Diplomats as well as British Prime Minister Gordon Brown have said that the junta’s figure probably was greatly understated, based on the reports of witnesses and others.

Getting accurate figures of casualty has been difficult, with many residents too afraid to speak out and foreign journalists barred from openly entering Myanmar. Soldiers and police were going door-to-door at some hotels in Yangon looking for foreigners.