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Myanmar Buddhist monks praying
at Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon (file pic) |
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YANGON: Hundreds of Buddhist monks have taken about 20
members of Myanmar's security forces hostage inside their
monastery, one day after clashes broke out at an anti-junta
protest, residents told AFP on Thursday.
The security forces came to the monastery to apologise for the
violence on Wednesday in the central town of Pakokku, about 500
kilometres (310 miles) north of the country's commercial capital
Yangon, residents said by telephone.
At least three monks were injured after security forces fired
shots into the air and used bamboo sticks to disperse a crowd of
300 monks who were protesting against a massive hike in fuel
prices, they said.
The monks locked the security forces inside the monastery and
set four of their vehicles on fire, the residents said.
"The monks told the people in the town not to participate in
this matter. They want to solve the problem themselves," one
resident told AFP.
The gates to the Aletaik monastery, where about 700 monks live,
have been locked since 10:30 am (0400 GMT), the residents said.
All the town's shops had closed as hundreds of people poured
into the streets to applaud the monks from outside the gate, one
resident said.
"The security forces outside the monastery are too afraid to go
near the crowd. They won't even show their walkie talkies," said
another resident.
"I fully support the monks. They were just peacefully praying
for the people. The monks are absolutely right," he said. "I'm
surprised that these security people would dare to harm Buddhist
monks in this country."
Monks are important cultural standard-bearers in this devoutly
Buddhist nation formerly known as Burma. Their participation was
credited with helping to bring popular support to a
pro-democracy uprising in 1988.
Those protests were brutally crushed by the military, when
soldiers opened fire on the crowds in the streets of Yangon and
killed hundreds, if not thousands.
The protest Wednesday in Pakokku was the first time that
uniformed soldiers are believed to have been deployed to break
up one of the near-daily protests that have erupted around the
country since August 19.
Until now, plainclothes police and militia had been used to
break up crowds that have been protesting against a massive hike
in fuel prices, which has left some unable to afford even bus
fare to work.
- AFP/so
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/298215/1/.html
Pakokku monks release detained officials Sep 06, 2007
(DVB)—Monks from Pakokku’s Mahavithutarama monastery have
released a group of about 20 government officials held hostage
since this morning, eyewitnesses told DVB.
The government officials, including Magwe division’s
religious affairs representative and the chairman of the Magwe
Peace and Development Council, were taken hostage early this
morning as the monks retaliated against the military’s brutal
crackdown on a protest march yesterday.
Eyewitnesses standing outside the monastery said that the
officials were released at about 4pm this afternoon.
“The head monk from the monastery who has hypertension asked
the younger monks to show forgiveness and release the officials.
They were let out the back door of the monastery as there was a
huge crowd of people waiting out the front,” one eyewitness
said.
Four of the six cars the officials drove to the monastery in
had been destroyed by midday after being set on fire by the
monks. Since early this afternoon more than 1000 people and a
military battalion have been stationed outside the monastery,
desperately trying to find out what was going on inside.
The civilians camped outside the monastery were reportedly
cheering the monks on and one bystander told DVB he thought that
it was time the government was taught a lesson.
“Hopefully this will also teach a lesson to those Union
Solidarity and Development Association and Swan Arr Shin members
not to be so harsh on people. Some of them have already fled
their homes and some are in hiding,” the bystander said.
Reporting by Aye Naing
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