Myanmar government warns monks after 100,000 take part in protest march

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar's military government issued a threat Monday to the barefoot Buddhist monks who led 100,000 people marching through the capital, in the strongest protests against the repressive rule in two decades.

The warning shows the increasing pressure the junta is under to either crack down on or compromise with a reinvigorated democracy movement. The monks have taken their traditional role as the conscience of society, backing the military into a corner from which it may lash out again.

The authorities did not stop the protests Monday, even as they built to a scale and fervour that rivalled the demonstrations bloodily suppressed by the army with mass shootings 19 years ago. The government has been handling the monks gingerly, wary of raising the ire of ordinary citizens in this devout, predominantly Buddhist country.

However, on Monday night the country's religious affairs minister appeared on state television to accuse the monks of being manipulated by the government's domestic and foreign enemies. Meeting with senior monks at Yangon's Kaba Aye Pagoda, Brig.-Gen. Thura Myint Maung said the protesting monks represented just two per cent of the country's total. He suggested that if senior monks did not restrain them, the government would act according to its own regulations, which he didn't detail.

Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier said Monday that Canada is calling on the Burmese government to engage in a genuine dialogue with members of the democratic opposition.

"We also call upon the Burmese authorities to respect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of the protestors and the people of Burma," Bernier said.

Also on Monday, the White House weighed in with the threat of additional sanctions against the Myanmar government and those who provide it with financial aid. U.S. President George W. Bush is expected to announce the sanctions Tuesday at the UN General Assembly. The United States restricts imports and exports and financial transactions with Myanmar, also known as Burma.

The current protests began on Aug. 19 after the government sharply raised fuel prices in what is one of Asia's poorest countries. But they are based in deep-rooted dissatisfaction with the military government.

"I don't like the government," a 20-year-old monk participating in the protest in the central city of Mandalay told The Associated Press. "The government is very cruel and our country is full of troubles."

Ordinary people have similar views, even if they may not act on them.

"I don't like the government because it only thinks about itself. But there is nothing I can do. If I join the protest, I will lose everything," said a hotel worker, also in Mandalay. Both she and the monk asked not to be named for fear of the authorities.

The protests over economic conditions were faltering when the monks last week took over leadership and assumed a role they played in previous battles against British colonialism and military dictators. At first the maroon-robed monks simply chanted and prayed. But as the public joined the march, the demonstrators demanded national reconciliation, meaning dialogue between the government and opposition parties, and freedom for political prisoners, as well as adequate food, shelter and clothing.

The fleeting appearance of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi at the gate of the Yangon residence where she is under house arrest squarely identified the protests with the longtime peaceful struggle of her party, the opposition National League Democracy. She has been under detention for 12 of the past 18 years.

In what appeared to be a miscalculation by the junta, a crowd of about 500 monks and sympathizers was let through police barricades Saturday to her home, where she briefly greeted them in her first public appearance in four years.

On Monday, after the crowds marched for more than five hours over 20 kilometres, a last hard-core group of more than 1,000 monks and 400 sympathizers walked up to an intersection where police blocked access to the street where Suu Kyi lives.

Making no effort to push past, the marchers chanted a Buddhist prayer with the words "May there be peace," and then dispersed. About 500 onlookers cheered their act of defiance, as 100 riot police with helmets and shields stared stonily ahead.

Monday's march was launched from the Shwedagon pagoda, the country's most sacred shrine, and 20,000 monks took the lead. Students joined the protest in noticeable numbers for the first time. Security forces were not in evidence for most of the route.

Diplomats and analysts said Myanmar's military rulers were showing unexpected restraint this time because of pressure from the country's key trading partner and diplomatic ally, China.

"Beijing is to host the next summer's Olympic Games. Everyone knows that China is the major supporter of the junta, so if government takes any action it will affect the image of China," a Southeast Asian diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity as a matter of protocol.

China, which is counting on Myanmar's vast oil and gas reserves to help fuel its booming economy, earlier this year blocked a UN Security Council resolution criticizing Myanmar's rights record, saying it was not the right forum. Much of the West applies diplomatic and political sanctions against the junta, but Chinese aid, along with the oil and gas revenues, effectively undercuts any leverage they might have had.

However, Beijing has also employed quiet diplomacy and subtle public pressure on the regime, urging it to move toward inclusive democracy and speed up the process of dialogue and reform.

© The Canadian Press, 2007