MYANMAR: Biggest protest yet against Myanmar's military rulers

Tens of thousands join Buddhist monks in demonstration against the generals who rule Myanmar in the biggest anti-government demonstration in 20 years. Tens of thousands of people joined streams of Buddhist monks on marches through Myanmar's former capital on Monday (September 24) in the biggest demonstration against the ruling generals since they crushed student-led protests nearly 20 years ago. Forty-five years of army rule has impoverished the nation of 53 million people. Protests were also held in Mandalay, where 10,000 monks and people took to the streets, and in Bago, just north of Yangon. In Yangon, five columns of monks, one stretching more than a kilometre (nearly a mile), marched from the Shwedagon Pagoda, the devoutly Buddhist country's holiest shrine, to the city centre where thousands of people filled five blocks. It's the sixth day of marches. Some of the monks carried placards calling for better living conditions and the release of political prisoners. After holding prayers at the Sule Pagoda in the main business district, a crowd estimated at up to 100,000 marched to another pagoda and dispersed peacefully. For the first time, the marchers included members of parliament elected in 1990 from the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) two days after a dramatic appearance of support for the monks by detained NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Suu Kyi's party won a landslide election victory in 1990, the first multi-party election to be held since 1960, but the military ignored it. What began as anger at last month's shock fuel price rises has become a wider movement against the generals, with some monks calling for peaceful mass protests until the junta fell. There were no signs of trouble during Monday's protests, but rumours of an imminent crackdown -- one suggested hospitals were being emptied of non-critical patients -- swirled in Yangon. The generals are due to hold a quarterly summit soon in their new capital of Naypyidaw, carved out of the central jungle. Dealing with the protests is sure to top the agenda.

ITN Source | September 25, 2007

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