THAILAND: Protestors and monks in Thailand hold demonstrations against Myanmar's military junta.

Activists and monks in Thailand hold demonstrations against Myanmar's military junta and its brutal crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators. A month has passed since the brutal crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Myanmar, but activists, Myanmar people in exile as well as monks are continuing to protest in neighbouring countries such as Thailand to condemn the violence. Early on Saturday (October 27), hundreds of Myanmar Buddhist monks and nuns crossed the border into Thailand to collect alms from Thai Buddhists to mark the end of lent. Many civilians on the Myanmar side are too poor to give alms and the monks and nuns are fed mostly by military officials and their families stationed near the border. But in a show of protest, the monks have been refusing these donations, preferring to cross the border to collect from their Thai neighbours. They are also refusing to perform religious rituals for those associated with the junta or the State Peace, Development Council, which has, in the past, made effort to show their support of religion. In Bangkok, about 50 Burmese and foreign protestors gathered outside the Myanmar Embassy on Sunday (October 28) to call for the release of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Carrying posters of the Nobel laureate and wearing red headbands they chanted "Free Free Burma" and "Free Free Aung San Suu Kyi" as the police looked on. The rally has become a weekly event following the uprising in September which was crushed by the junta. Myanmar state media said 10 people were killed but Western governments say the toll is likely to be far higher. Although Myanmar's junta has freed more protesters who were arrested during last month's crackdown and has began talks with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the protestors were skeptical. "We believe they are meeting Aung San Suu Kyi and General Aung Kyi. We are afraid Burmese regime lie again to all over the word. That's why we are afraid, afraid very much," said Burmese activist William Chit Sein, who participated in the Sunday protest. The New Light of Myanmar, the junta's main mouthpiece, said the meeting between the pair at a government guest house lasted 75 minutes. It also published a picture of them sitting either side of a table. Aung Kyi bears a smile, but Suu Kyi, who has spent 12 of the last 18 years in detention, appears stony faced. U.N. envoy to Myanmar Ibrahim Gambari, who is due to return to the country in the first week of November, welcomed the talks, but stressed that the appointment on Aung Kyi as liaison was only a first step.

ITN Source | October 28, 2007

Tags:. .table. .published. .council. .although. .poor