Page 2 of
2 Cracks emerge in Myanmar military
unity By Larry Jagan
apparent effort to locate the
protest leaders and halt the demonstrations.
Key opposition figures, among them actors,
artists, journalists and writers, including even
the renowned comedian Zargana, have also been
detained. Most of the leading members of Suu Kyi's
pro-democracy party, the National League for
Democracy (NLD), have likewise been arrested in
recent days.
While there is a lull in the
street protests at present, with both the
military and protestors
apparently regrouping and reorganizing, there is
little doubt that a major movement to overthrow
the military regime is in the making. While the
monks were the leading force in recent weeks,
former and current activists and student leaders
are now reportedly organizing behind the scenes.
Senior monks and students recently formed
a joint "strike committee" to lead future
demonstrations. "We are going for it, this is our
time. We have to take this chance now as there may
never be another one," a senior former student
leader recently told Asia Times Online from hiding
inside the country. "The students will support the
monks' peaceful protests," he said.
After
weeks of mainly peaceful protests led by the
monks, the regime finally dropped their policy of
restraint last week and hit back, killing at least
13 and injuring many more. Dusk-to-dawn curfews
are now in place in Yangon and Mandalay and more
than 20,000 troops have been deployed in the
former capital. Soldiers are stationed outside
Buddhist monasteries and temples to prevent the
monks from returning to the streets and they have
reportedly been warned that they would be shot if
they ignored the warning.
Up until a week
ago the monks had been primarily protesting
against the local authorities' use of violence to
quell an earlier march near Mandalay, where
several monks were badly beaten by violent
vigilantes wielding sticks. All along, though, the
monks have also been calling on the government to
reduce prices, supporting the first of the public
protests that broke out more than a month ago
after the government raised certain fuel charges
by up to 500%.
"They know better than
anyone the impact the rising fuel and food prices
is having on the people at the grassroots," said
Myanmar analyst Aung Naing Oo, noting that monks
rely on the donation of daily alms for their
survival. "They understand that this has become
harder and harder, especially over the last two
years. What they used to collect from four or five
houses, now takes more than 30," he said.
But Buddhist monks are now clearly in the
political vanguard, depending on which monks you
listen to, alternatively for national
reconciliation, dialogue between the military and
the political opposition National League for
Democracy, or outright regime change through
popular protests. The fact that the Buddhist
clergy has recently taken on such an overt
political role is exceptional.
After the
military first assaulted monks near Mandalay, a
new group emerged known as the All Burma Monks
Alliance, which represents a younger, more radical
segment of the Buddhist clergy. They have since
urged ordinary people "to struggle peacefully
against the evil military dictatorship until it is
banished from the land".
"Normally monks
are not political," said Win Min, based at Chiang
Mai University in northern Thailand. "They focus
on their individual enlightenment according to
traditional Buddhism. What is happening now shows
that the situation has reached the point where
they can no longer tolerate it."
So far
Suu Kyi's NLD has been a bystander and her members
seemingly uninvolved in organizing the spontaneous
monk-led marches. But the charismatic leader is
known to have strong support among the protesting
monks and she would seem to be the key to any
potential political settlement to the recent
unrest.
Than Shwe is known to harbor a
strong personal grudge against her and he would
likely be unwilling to enter into any compromise
that shared power with her NLD. The wildcard is
whether another military faction inside the SPDC
views things differently and might be willing to
take the chance of trying to remove their
recalcitrant leader for their own political gain.
Larry Jagan previously covered Myanmar
politics for the British Broadcasting Corp. He is
currently a freelance journalist based in Bangkok.
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