how to bring regime change

darkcrowdarkcrow Posts: 1,102
edited September 2007 in A Moving Train
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7009825.stm

Monks lead largest Burma protest

The orange-clad monks are streaming through the streets
Thousands of monks and civilians are marching through Burma's former capital in what appears to be the biggest anti-government protest so far.
Eyewitnesses said the number of people demonstrating on Monday was as high as 30,000.

It follows Sunday's march in Rangoon by 20,000 monks and nuns, in what was the largest protest for almost 20 years.

Events are now moving unpredictably, analysts say. So far the ruling generals are showing unusual restraint.

Monks are revered in Burma and any action against them by the military government would spark an outcry.

But there are fears of a repeat of 1988, when the last democracy uprising was crushed by the military and some 3,000 people were killed, correspondents say.



The British ambassador in Rangoon, Mark Canning, said Burma's leaders were now in uncharted territory.

"Firstly, the demonstrations could subside - I mean, that's looking less and less likely by the day," he told the BBC.

"Secondly, that we could see some sort of counter-reaction, which I've said would be a disaster, although in terms of probability it, I'm afraid, ranks quite high."



Two well-known actors, comedian Zargana and film star Kyaw Thu, went to Rangoon's golden Shwedagon Pagoda early on Monday to offer food and water to the monks before they started their march.

Some of the monks were carrying placards calling for better living conditions and national reconciliation, witnesses said.


On Saturday, monks marched to greet pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest, but access to her home was barred on Sunday, and again on Monday.

The organisation that has emerged to lead the protests, the Alliance of All Burmese Buddhist Monks, urged people in the country to join Monday's protests.

In a statement on Friday, the monks' group vowed to continue the marches until they had "wiped the military dictatorship from the land".

This will be the eighth straight day of action by the monks. The protests were triggered by the government's decision to double the price of fuel last month, hitting people hard in the impoverished nation.

Pro-democracy activists led the initial demonstrations against the move, but dozens of them have been arrested.

Monks then joined the movement after troops used force to break up a peaceful rally in the town of Pakokku on 5 September.

Speaking on the sidelines of a UN meeting, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said America was watching the situation "very carefully" and denounced Burma's "brutal regime".

"The Burmese people deserve better. They deserve the right to be able to live in freedom, just as everyone does," she said.
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Comments

  • gue_bariumgue_barium Posts: 5,515
    Hasn't Aung San Suu Kyi been under house arrest ever since she won the Presidential election there something like 5 years ago?

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  • gue_bariumgue_barium Posts: 5,515
    ...Aung San Suu Kyi returned to Burma in 1988 to take care of her ailing mother. By coincidence, in that year, the long-time leader of the socialist ruling party, General Ne Win, stepped down, leading to mass demonstrations for democratisation on August 8, 1988 (8-8-88, a day seen as favorable), which were violently suppressed. A new military junta took power.

    Heavily influenced by Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence[2][3] , Aung San Suu Kyi entered politics to work for democratisation, helped found the National League for Democracy on 27 September 1988, and was put under house arrest on 20 July 1989. She was offered freedom if she would leave the country, but she refused.

    One of her most famous speeches is the "Freedom From Fear" speech, which begins:

    “ It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aung_San_Suu_Kyi

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    except by express written permission of ©gue_barium, the author.
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