Monks brave teargas and gunfire to challenge generals' grip on Burma

Buddhist monks marched in protest in Burma on Sept. 18 in the biggest show of defiance for a decade against the country's repressive and tenacious dictatorship. The marches, in Rangoon, the capital, and at least four other places brought to a head a month of protest against the junta. Despite the presence of large numbers of police and civilian militiamen supporting the Government, most marches were peaceful, if tense. However, the increasing presence on the streets of monks, after the suppression and arrest of civilian demonstrators last month, will add greatly to the discomfort of one of the world's longest-surviving military governments. According to witness accounts, conveyed by news agencies and opposition groups in exile, as many as 400 monks marched in Rangoon. Hundreds of people joined in, and they were followed by plainclothes police on motorbikes and watched by 200 riot police in lorries. After being prevented from entering the golden Shwedagon Pagoda, the holiest site of Burmese Buddhism, the demonstration made its way through the town center. Police fired teargas and warning shots to disperse 1,000 monks in the port city of Sittwe, 350 miles west of Rangoon, and at least three were arrested, according to the American-funded Radio Free Asia. In Pegu, 50 miles to the north, as many as 1,000 monks were reported to have marched to the local pagoda. There were smaller gatherings in Kyaukpadaung and Aunglan, north of the capital. The day before, about 500 monks were reported to have marched in Kyaukpadaung and Chauk, northwest of Rangoon, but there were no arrests, in contrast to last month, when dozens of people were seized when they went on a demonstration. The restraint shown by the regime attests to the moral authority of the saffron-robed monks, who command a respect unmatched by any secular institution in the Buddhist country. There was outrage on Sept. 5 when hundreds of monks in the town of Pakokku were set upon by soldiers and pro-government militiamen as they marched and chanted peacefully. Shots were fired above their heads and large numbers of demonstrators were beaten. When a delegation of government officials went to the pagoda to apologize, they were taken hostage briefly by the Buddhists. Monks across the country reacted with fury and senior abbots demanded an apology for the incident, setting this week as the deadline. If no apology was offered, they threatened to carry out further demonstrations and to refuse to accept alms from members of the military–a humiliating sanction in a country in which the giving of charity to monks is an essential duty of respectable citizens. Rather than political slogans, the monks chant prayers and Buddhist charms to ward off harm. The implication that the junta is an evil force, an offense against the natural order of things, is especially potent in Burma, where religious faith and superstition are widespread. Sept. 18 was the nineteenth anniversary of the internal military coup that brought the junta to power. It took over from an existing military government after the bloody suppression of nationwide democracy demonstrations in 1988, when an estimated 3,000 protesters died, many of them students. In response, the government held democratic elections in 1990, which were won overwhelmingly by the National League for Democracy, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, who later won the Nobel Peace Prize. But the junta never acknowledged the election results and has held on to power since, despite denunciations and appeals by Western governments and human rights organizations. The latest demonstrations were triggered last month when the government raised the price of fuel oil by as much as 500 percent. They were led by veterans of the 1988 struggle, scores of whom were arrested; many more have gone into hiding. The fear of another massacre may explain why the latest protests have not come close to the scale of those in 1988. The authorities have also cut off mobile telephone and land lines to hamper communication between activist organizations. "People today are more aware of politics, and the current political situation, thanks to the media abroad," Tun Myint Aung, a leader of the '88 Generation Students' Group, told the Irrawaddy news website. "The general discontent in the public is high. In '88 we wore masks while protesting so we could not be identified. The protesters today wore nothing though they knew they would be arrested later." Making a stand " 600 monks were arrested and several were killed during demonstrations in 1974 " In 1980 the junta called for the "cleansing" of Buddhism. It set up the State Sangha council, mostly comprising junta-appointed monks, and banned many forms of Buddhist expression " In 1989 the monk U Kawiya was sentenced to death for his role in the uprising the previous year in which thousands were killed " Buddhist clergy were asked to stay off the streets this summer, and surveillance around monastries has increased