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YANGON: Scores of pro-democracy Buddhist monks took to the streets of Myanmar‘s second-biggest metropolis Saturday, rallying in opposition to the navy coup in demonstrations that coincided with the 14th anniversary of earlier clergy-led mass protests.
Myanmar has been in turmoil and its financial system paralysed since February when the navy ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian authorities, ending a ten-year experiment with democracy.
Across the nation an anti-junta resistance has taken root, prompting the navy to unleash a brutal crackdown on dissent. Greater than 1,100 civilians have been killed and eight,400 arrested, in accordance with a neighborhood monitoring group.
Traditionally, monks in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar have been seen as a supreme ethical authority, organising communities and at instances mobilising opposition to the navy regimes. However the coup has uncovered a schism within the monkhood, with some outstanding clerics giving the generals their blessing and others supporting the protesters.
On Saturday, dozens of monks of their shiny orange and crimson robes marched via the streets of Mandalay with flags and banners and threw vibrant streamers within the air.
“Monks who love the reality stand on the facet of the folks,” a protest chief informed AFP.
The monks chanted for the discharge of political prisoners together with members of Aung San Suu Kyi’s political social gathering, which received a landslide in final November’s election.
Some monks carried the wrong way up alms bowls — ordinarily used to gather meals donations from the group — in a logo of protest to reject the junta regime, which calls itself the State Administration Council.
“We’ve got to take dangers… to protest as we may be arrested or shot at any level. We’re not secure to reside in our monasteries anymore,” a 35-year-old monk informed AFP.
In 2007, Buddhist monks led large demonstrations nationwide in opposition to the earlier military junta regime — an rebellion that kicked off after a sudden hike in gasoline costs.
The “Saffron Revolution” posed a extreme legitimacy disaster for the then 35-year-old dictatorship, which responded with brutal crackdowns that killed at the very least 31 folks and noticed a whole bunch of monks defrocked and arrested.
Myanmar has been in turmoil and its financial system paralysed since February when the navy ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian authorities, ending a ten-year experiment with democracy.
Across the nation an anti-junta resistance has taken root, prompting the navy to unleash a brutal crackdown on dissent. Greater than 1,100 civilians have been killed and eight,400 arrested, in accordance with a neighborhood monitoring group.
Traditionally, monks in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar have been seen as a supreme ethical authority, organising communities and at instances mobilising opposition to the navy regimes. However the coup has uncovered a schism within the monkhood, with some outstanding clerics giving the generals their blessing and others supporting the protesters.
On Saturday, dozens of monks of their shiny orange and crimson robes marched via the streets of Mandalay with flags and banners and threw vibrant streamers within the air.
“Monks who love the reality stand on the facet of the folks,” a protest chief informed AFP.
The monks chanted for the discharge of political prisoners together with members of Aung San Suu Kyi’s political social gathering, which received a landslide in final November’s election.
Some monks carried the wrong way up alms bowls — ordinarily used to gather meals donations from the group — in a logo of protest to reject the junta regime, which calls itself the State Administration Council.
“We’ve got to take dangers… to protest as we may be arrested or shot at any level. We’re not secure to reside in our monasteries anymore,” a 35-year-old monk informed AFP.
In 2007, Buddhist monks led large demonstrations nationwide in opposition to the earlier military junta regime — an rebellion that kicked off after a sudden hike in gasoline costs.
The “Saffron Revolution” posed a extreme legitimacy disaster for the then 35-year-old dictatorship, which responded with brutal crackdowns that killed at the very least 31 folks and noticed a whole bunch of monks defrocked and arrested.
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