Crackdown on Burma's Monks Gets Bloody

09 Oct 2007

By Gary Feuerberg
Epoch Times Washington, D.C. Staff

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The situation in Burma is quite tense. Over 20,000 soldiers patrol the streets of Burma's biggest city, Yangon (Rangoon), have set up check-points, arresting every young person they suspect, and anyone who has a cell phone with a camera.

"[Nationally] more than 200 peaceful protesters, including Buddhist monks, students…, and civilians, have been brutally killed and over 2,000 were arrested, by soldiers and riot police in a matter of days," said Bo Hla-Tint, from the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma.

The killings are the response of the junta to the 100,000 marchers on September 24th.

For an update on the crisis in Burma, the Congressional Human Rights Caucus (CHRC) held a briefing Oct 3 on Capital Hill when experts on Burma's crisis testified and answered questions.

Monks Try to Send Enormous Blessing

Protests began Aug 19, four days after "the military junta increased gas prices, doubling the price of fuel and quintupling the price of compressed gas," said Aung Din, Policy Director of U.S. Campaign for Burma, at a hearing before the Committee on Foreign Relations. But it wasn't until Sep 5 in the township of Pakkoku that the monks intervention in the protests would place them in the vanguard of a national crisis.

"Hundreds of monks came to the streets, reciting Metta Sutra, which is the Buddhist teaching of love and kindness. They felt that there is a lack of love and kindness in the country, and that's why they tried to send their enormous Metta to all the people of Burma…," said Din.

The monks were brutally attacked by angry soldiers and the junta's militia members, according to Din, who said this was a "huge insult on Buddhism and towards the monks." Buddhist monks across the country formed an alliance and demanded that the junta apologize to the monks attacked and insulted as well as three other demands, i.e., reducing the price of fuel, releasing political detainees, and engaging in dialogue towards transitioning the government to democracy and civilian rule.

When these demands were not met, on Sep 18, the monks responded by excommunicating the military junta and its militias and their families by refusing to accept alms from them and excluding them from participating in Buddhist rituals.

The monks marched in the cities reciting Metta Sutra. "In Rangoon, monks gathered at the country's most [sacred] shrine, the Shwe Dagon, prayed in front of the pagoda, and then marched toward Sule Pagado in downtown Rangoon," said Din.

The major crackdown against the monks began at midnight September 26 and the next morning, when security forces raided several Buddhist monasteries (towns of Myitkyina, Bhamo, Moe Nyin). "Soldiers broke down doors and entered compounds as if they were occupying enemy camps…When residents came to see the monasteries, they saw blood and damages everywhere." Seven monks were beaten to death.

In a famous monastery in Rangoon, several hundred soldiers came with 20 trucks and left with over 200 monks. When the people came to see the monastery in the morning, there were about 50 monks left behind traumatized and badly beaten, said Din. These monks said many monks were beaten to death by the soldiers. While the people were treating the injured monks, the soldiers returned and took away the remaining monks. As the people tried to block their way, more people were killed and their bodies taken away by the soldiers.

Return to Normalcy?

Following the beatings, arrests, curfews, and killings, on Monday (Oct 1) the regime's Foreign Minister at the UN General Assembly said: "Normalcy has returned in Burma."

"The question I would like to ask is 'what kind of normalcy' is he referring to? I am certain he does not mean to say Burma is 'quiet,'" said Than Lwin Htun, from Voice of America (VOA), Burmese Service, and who was a protester during the last uprising in 1988 when he said over 3,000 peaceful demonstrators died.

Mr. Than recounted his information from VOA reporters and other news agencies that monks who participated in street protests were picked up at night from their monasteries. The junta says only 10 people have died. But Mr. Than said his contacts in Yangon have published the names of 138 people who were killed by the army last week, and the number is at least 200.

"Thousands of protestors, including wounded people, have been detained. Many are held in makeshift detention camps in Rangoon which were not built to house such high numbers of people. We have further received reports of detainees being beaten and preparations being made to send detainees to prisons in remote areas," testified Bo Hla-Tint, from the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, who was elected to the national parliament and had been arrested and imprisoned in the 1990s.

"We are dismayed of reports and photographic evidence which indicate that the military is seeking to remove evidence of gross violations of human rights perpetrated by its own security forces. Bodies of people have been cremated or dumped in river beds…" said Hla-Tint.

The well-armed regime—450,000 strong—that has been in power for 45 years is probably immovable. Allied with China which blocks all meaningful action by the United Nations, their corrupt military rulers enjoy financial privileges while the great masses live in extreme poverty. Past mass protests in 1988 and 1990 resulted in severe crackdowns and thousands fired upon and killed.

However, this time, there is a difference. While the regime controls what gets printed in the media, the Internet and digital cameras have rapidly spread images of the protests in Yangon to the Burma nation and around the world. The regime realized this and shut down the Internet but not before a lot of photos were sent out.

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi

In addition to democratic reform, the over 100,000 demonstrators demanded the immediate release of 1991 Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

The military took power over an unstable democracy in 1962, becoming one of the most violent and repressive regimes in the world. In 1988, student protests led to democratic elections two years later. The National League for Democracy, the political party led by Aung San Suu Kyi, won 82% of the vote and would have taken power, but the military blocked the transformation. Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest for six years, during which time in 1991, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Suu Kyi is a practitioner of Mahatma Gandhi's nonviolence. In 2003 she was arrested again and has been under house arrest for the last four years.

The United Nations General Assembly, the United States, the European Union, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Japan, Australia, 12 Nobel Peace Prize recipients, the UN Secretary General and 59 former Presidents and Prime Ministers have called for the military junta to release of Aung San Suu Kyi.

The democracy protesters and Buddhist monks are hoping for some compromise where the nation could transition to a democracy and reconcile. There are some hopeful signs: the military allowed some 2000 protesters, including hundreds of Buddhist monks, to pass through the roadblocks surrounding Aung San Suu Kyi on Sep 22, and were "allowed to pray outside the heavily guarded home," and in tears Ms. Suu Kyi was able to walk to her gate and greet the tearful protestors, said the Economist (9/27).

China and Military Junta: Quid Quo Pro

Internationally, China holds the most leverage for influencing the regime for three reasons. China is the junta's main arms supplier, dominant trading power, and blocks effective action by the UN Security Council. Relying on publicly available information, the U.S. Campaign for Burma found that since 1989, China has provided Burma's military regime with over $2 billion worth of weapons and military equipment, some below market prices.

U.S. Campaign for Burma also found that China is Burma's largest source of imports accounting for more than 31% in 2006. Burma's military sells its natural gas to China at deeply discounted rates. In exchange, China in January vetoed a peaceful UN Security Council resolution that would have authorized the Secretary General enhanced powers to resolve the crisis.

"There is a deep concern here that China's insatiable appetite for raw materials closes their eyes and minds to human rights violations across the globe, from Darfur to Burma," said Congressman Lantos, Oct 2.

Burma (Myanmar) at a Glance

The CHRC put out some background information at the briefing about Burma's deplorable conditions and decades of mismanagement by successive military regimes:
• 90% of Burma's population lives on less than a $1 a day.
• Once known as "the rice bowl of Asia," in 1960, Burma was the largest rice exporter in the world. Today 40% of Burmese children are malnourished, and Burma was granted the status of Least Developed Country by the UN in 1987.
• Burma has the largest number of child soldiers in the world, nearly 70,000, some as young as 11 years old.
• There are over 1,600 political prisoners, including 38 elected members of parliament.
• Millions of Burmese are held in forced labor camps.
• The Red Cross' operations in Burma were shut down by the regime last year after the junta called them "terrorists."
• In the last 10 years, over 3,000 ethnic villages have been burned down in the eastern part of the country, twice as many as have been destroyed in Darfur.

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