EarthTimes - Two years after 'saffron revolution,' Myanmar monks under thumb

EarthTimes - Two years after 'saffron revolution,' Myanmar monks under thumb
Posted : Tue, 22 Sep 2009 08:17:16 GMT
By : Jolissa Graham

Bangkok - Two years after Myanmar's Buddhist monks launched their unsuccessful "saffron revolution," more than 250 monks and nuns remained in prison and the monasteries have been infiltrated by the ruling military junta, a Human Rights Watch report released Tuesday said. "The movement as such has been forced underground, " the report's author, Bertil Lintner, said at a press conference in Bangkok. "But it doesn't mean it's dead. Monks are not foolish. They are not going to take to the streets to commit suicide, but when the time is right, I am sure you will see the monks again."

Myanmar's ruling military generals have always shown public reverence for the monkhood but have also tried to systematically control the institution' s political activism.

Since 2007, the controls have intensified, especially in anticipation of the general election in 2010, which promises to be neither free nor fair, Linter said.

"There are agents in all major monasteries watching who is going in and out," Lintner said. "The monasteries have been infiltrated with informers."
Regulations to register as a monk have also been tightened.

"There is more scrutiny of who is registering to be a monk and more scrutiny of sermons to make sure they aren't tinged witha political agenda," said David Mathieson, Myanmar expert for Human Rights Watch.

The report was released on the anniversary of the September 22, 2007, demonstration, in which thousands of barefoot monks marched into Yangon in a peaceful protest against decades of military rule and deteriorating economic conditions in the country of 54 million.



The demonstration raised hopes that Myanmar was finally being pushed toward political change because the junta would be afraid to crack down on the country's revered Buddhist monks. That optimism proved unfounded.

"The hopes that everyone had that this would carve out greater freedom in Burma were crushed five days later when the military started shooting, beating and arresting hundreds of Buddhist monks," Mathieson said.

At least 31 deaths were confirmed by the United Nations in the crackdown although other organizations estimated much higher casualties. Hundreds of monks and their followers were arrested. Thousands were disrobed and forced out of the monkhood.

As of last month, there were 237 monks in Myanmar jails and another 35 nuns, the Human Rights Watch report said.

The report was researched and written by Lintner, a well-known Myanmar expert who has spent a lifetime reporting and writing books on the South-East Asian country.
Lintner travelled to Malaysia, Sri Lanka, London and New York to interview monks who fled