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Buddhist monks no strangers to Myanmar politics
Real estate news By Nopporn Wong-Anan
Thu Sep 27, 2007 11:59pm EDT
The maroon-robed monks at the heart of Myanmar's biggest pro-democracy demonstrations in 20 years are no strangers to political struggle in the mostly Buddhist nation, under military rule the past four decades. At least 10 monasteries were raided and sacked this week and hundreds of monks arrested on apparent suspicion of spearheading marches that drew as many as 100,000 people in Yangon.
Small protests started last month against shock rises in fuel prices, a huge blow to Myanmar's 56 million people -- already some of the poorest in Asia. But the real turning point came when soldiers fired warning shots and then roughed up monks and civilians marching in the town of Pokokku, 600 km (370 miles) north of Yangon, on September 5.
"They tied the monks to the street lamp posts with ropes, just like people do to horses or dogs," said Bangkok-based Soe Aung, a spokesman for National Council of the Union of Burma, a group of exiled politicians. "They refused to apologize as demanded by the monasteries, which really triggered the mass rally," he said.
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