{"id":285,"date":"2007-09-08T18:22:34","date_gmt":"2007-09-08T17:22:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tinyplanetblog.com\/?p=285"},"modified":"2007-09-08T18:22:34","modified_gmt":"2007-09-08T17:22:34","slug":"movement-in-myanmar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tinyplanetblog.com\/?p=285","title":{"rendered":"Movement in Myanmar"},"content":{"rendered":"

There have been numerous protests in Myanmar over fuel price hikes. These small and scattered demonstrations have been organised by pro-democracy groups and broken up by pro-military civilian organisations. The situation has also provoked reactions from Buddhist monks.<\/p>\n

Now the junta is taking a different tack: it’s offering some concessions<\/a>. In this case, it<\/p>\n

released a political prisoner whose leg was broken when he was arrested in the recent outbreak of antigovernment protests. His case had gained international attention when fellow prisoners staged a hunger strike calling for his freedom.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is major movement from a government that’s coming under severe scrutiny — and has been under pressure for years to step aside and allow a democractic system come into being. Whether or not the (slightly) softer approach it has taken with apologies and such is a reflection of the military’s long-gestating “road map to democracy” is unclear.<\/p>\n

The junta has blamed pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi for instigating the protests and provoking the monks<\/a>, so I’m not sure what it’s planning. I’d like to think the international criticism of its actions is having an impact.<\/p>\n

I find the Buddhist angle very interesting.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, a delegation of military officers was briefly held hostage by Buddhist monks at a temple outside the main city of Yangon [formerly Rangoon and the old capital of Myanmar]. The officers had reportedly gone there to apologize to the monks for treating them roughly during a demonstration the day before.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The monks have been up in arms and have taken prominent roles in major protests since British rule. The material is too good to rewrite, so I present quotes from the International Herald Tribune<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Angry monks were reported to have destroyed two buildings owned by officials involved in Wednesday’s crackdown in Pakokku, a center of Buddhist learning about 400 miles northwest of Yangon.<\/p>\n

The New Light of Myanmar, a state-controlled newspaper, reported its version Friday of the violence and the hostage-taking, saying the officers handed over their cellphones to the monks after they had “supplicated to them” over the situation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The rally the monks took part in was subsequently fired upon.<\/p>\n

The Democratic Voice of Burma, a prodemocracy organization based in Norway with contacts inside the country, said “a few monks” visited the home last night [Friday] of a leader of the crackdown “to have a talk with him and teach him some Buddhist manners.”<\/p>\n

“But he wasn’t at home,” it reported, “so they destroyed a few things from his house to teach him a lesson instead.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There have been numerous protests in Myanmar over fuel price hikes. These small and scattered demonstrations have been organised by pro-democracy groups and broken up by pro-military civilian organisations. The situation has also provoked reactions from Buddhist monks. Now the junta is taking a different tack: it’s offering some concessions. In this case, it released […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[25,32,59],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tinyplanetblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tinyplanetblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tinyplanetblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tinyplanetblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tinyplanetblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/tinyplanetblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tinyplanetblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tinyplanetblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tinyplanetblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}