Yangon
Myanmar's state controlled media admitted for the first time Friday
that the military regime was at loggerheads with rebellious Buddhist
monks in Pakokku, central Myanmar.
The New Light of Myanmar, a government mouthpiece, acknowledged that
security personnel had Wednesday clashed with hundreds of protesting
monks in Pakokku, 530 km north of Yangon and were forced to disperse
the demonstration by firing over the heads of the monks.
The monks were protesting against fuel price hikes implemented last
month, and the arrests of more than 100 anti-inflation protestors in
Yangon in recent weeks.
The state media also confirmed reports that Magway Division military
officials had Thursday visited the Bawdimandine monastery in Pakokku
and had their vehicle burned by 50 stone-throwing monks. The
government officials spent several hours in the monastery before
making their getaway.
Before Friday, the government-controlled press had kept quiet about
the rebellious monks of Pakokku, a centre for Buddhism in Myanmar.
Meanwhile, according to eyewitnesses in Pakokku, monks on Friday
attacked the Nay La Store owned by a prominent government official
and allowed a mob to sack the place.
Buddhist monks have a long history of political activism in Myanmar,
a predominantly Buddhist country.
Monks played a prominent role in Myanmar's struggle for independence
from Great Britain in 1948 and joined students in the anti-military
demonstrations that rocked Myanmar in 1988, which ended in
bloodshed.
Like the recent protests, the 1988 mass demonstrations were sparked
by rising discontent with the military's mismanagement of the
economy and refusal to introduce some semblance of democracy.
After the 1988 events, the military, although still very much in
charge, dropped its socialist ideology and opened the country up to
foreign investments and market forces.
But the generals' brutal 1988 crackdown on the pro-democracy
movement, that left an estimated 3,000 dead, resulted in the
severing of nearly all international aid to the regime.
The aid blockade and other sanctions have been kept in place for the
past 19 years. Although the military allowed a general election in
1990 it ignored the outcome when 80 percent of the votes went to the
National League for Democracy (NLD) of opposition leader Aung San
Suu Kyi. The regime's refusal to hand over power to the elected
politicians sealed its pariah status in the West.
Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has been under house arrest
since May 2003. Her ongoing incarceration was harshly criticised
earlier this week by US President George W. Bush who is currently
attending the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in
Sydney.
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