The Human Rights Documentation Unite (HRDU), on Monday, released a nearly 200-page account entitled Bullets in the Alms Bowl, recalling last year's protests against Burma's military junta and the often violent reaction of the authorities.
Attempting to connect the myriad of factors contributing toward 2007's widespread protests, the report's authors write: "The existing economic climate and prevalent systems of structural violence within the country serves to contextualize the protests along with an analysis of the interdependence of Burma's monastic and lay communities and the relationship existing between the Sangha [community of monks] and the SPDC [Burmese government]."
Of the regime's relationship with the clergy, it is said, "In promoting and legitimizing itself through the sponsorship of an already widely respected institution, the Burmese junta has always been acutely aware that it is offering its support to a religion which represents one of the largest potential threats to its own grasp on power."
The study is quick to condemn the militarization of Burma's economy as a prime reason for the visible, widespread unrest that gripped Burma in August and September of last year, drawing attention to military expenditure, estimated at 40 percent of government expenses compared with healthcare at approximately three percent.
"The machinations of this exploitative system are given explicit evidence in the increased militarization which invariably accompanies SPDC cash projects such as hydroelectric dams, mining concessions and natural gas pipelines, and the concomitant increase in abuse of local populations," says the survey, drawing a direct positive relationship between Burma's poverty and discontent.
In such an economic climate, HRDU refers to August's price hikes in the energy sector as the "straw that broke the camel's back," responsible for spawning the initial civilian protests against the imposition of further economic hardship.
The crackdown, with climaxed against monk-led protests on September 27, is said to still persist throughout Burmese society, with the widespread suppression of information and unrestrained violence.
Of September 27, one witness interviewed told HRDU of his friend who was wearing a shirt depicting detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, "He was intentionally shot by a soldier. He told me later that he had seen the soldier pointing his gun directly at him. He also said he had seen the Japanese journalist take a photo of him before he fell down." Kenji Nagai, the Japanese journalist referenced, would die there on the streets of Rangoon.
And of the current mood of Burma's cowed population: "[The people are] still against the government mentally but not physically because we can't do anything. If we do they will arrest us. We don't want to be killed. We don't want to be tortured. The government takes advantage of this. The government suppressed the protests but there's not really quiet. There's a lot of defiance," maintains one Pakokku monk interviewed by HRDU.
The HRDU is the research and documentation department of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB), a Burmese exile government headquartered in the United States.
