Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Five Burmese Buddhist monks who have launched a protest in support of political prisoners by locking themselves in a religious hall in the Maha Myatmuni Pagoda compound in Maha Aungmyay in Mandalay in central Burma said they would continue their protest on Tuesday evening.
"The authorities told us not to hold a demonstration here, but we don’t accepted that. We told them we will continue," a protestor told Mizzima by phone.
The protest started Tuesday morning around 5:30 a.m. Monks used a hand-held loud speaker to announce the protest. Banners saying "Release Political Prisoners Immediately," "Stop the Civil War" and "Give Us Freedom" are hanging on the outside wall of the hall, said an eyewitness.
The authorities sent a monk delegation comprised of influential monks from Masoeyein Monastery and the regional-level Sangha organization to talk to the protesters. Although three talks have been held, no agreement was reached to end the protest.
The monks have asked to speak to political opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi by phone, but there has been no communication with her so far, said a source.
"We gave our contact number. We were told that she will call at 1:15 p.m. but no call has come so far," he said.
An eyewitness told Mizzima by phone: “They [monks] secured a veranda space by locking the door. It is five feet wide and about 30 feet long. The hall is located at the northeast corner of the (Maha Myatmuni) pagoda.
“So far, security is normal. There are about 500 spectators," he said early Tuesday.
Sources close to monks have speculated that a former exiled monk-activist who lived in Germany, Ashin Sopaka, and who staged a protest walk from Bangkok to Mae Sot, Thailand, in 2007, is in the group of monks who have staged the protest.
Monks who are politically active have been a source of concern for the Burmese government for decades. Mass protests led by monks in 2007 were sparked by the junta’s decision to remove fuel subsidies without warning, causing fuel prices to soar overnight.
The protests peaked on September 24, 2007, when up to 100,000 people marched in Rangoon, the largest anti-government protests since the pro-democracy protests in August 1988. During the brutal military crackdown on the protests, Burma’s armed forces shot into the crowds, killing monks and civilians while they staged their non-violent protests.
