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Monks take to streets again
31/10/2007 13:06 - (SA)
Yangon - More than 100 Buddhist monks marched and chanted in northern Myanmar for nearly an hour on Wednesday, in the first public demonstration since the government's deadly crackdown last month on pro-democracy protesters, several monks said.
The monks in Pakokku shouted no slogans, but one monk told the Democratic Voice of Burma, a Norway-based short-wave radio station and website run by dissident journalists, that it was a continuation of the protests last month.
The march clearly was in defiance of the government.
"We walked around the town and chanted. ... We are continuing our protest from last month as we have not yet achieved any of the demands we asked for," the monk told the radio station.
"Our demands are for lower commodity prices, national reconciliation and immediate release of (pro-democracy leader) Aung San Suu Kyi and all the political prisoners," said the monk, who was not identified by name.
He said they had little time to organise the march so it was small, but "there will be more organised and bigger protests soon".
Up to 100 000 people took part in demonstrations in Yangon last month that were crushed when troops fired on protesters on September 26-27 in a crackdown that left at least 10 people dead by the government's count, drawing international condemnation. Opposition groups say as many as 200 people may have been killed.
- AP
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