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| Southeast Asia |
| The day Burma was silenced |
| 2007-09-28 |
| The junta showed a subtle and malignant cunning, and then moved against the monks the link includes photos that show the death of a Japanese journalist. Over at BelmontClub Wretchard has a few words about this. Burma's generals silenced the Buddhist monks yesterday morning. For a week and a half, the monks had been on the streets of Rangoon in their tens of thousands, and their angry calm gave courage to the people around them. But overnight, they were beaten, shot and arrested, and locked in their monasteries. Handfuls of them emerged yesterday — two or three brave individuals, a dozen at most — but nothing to approach the mass marches of the previous nine days. Everyone felt their absence. You could see it in the faces of the civilian demonstrators who took to the streets anyway, in defiance of the official warnings. You could see it too in the swagger of the riot police, banging their batons menacingly on their shields as they advanced. The monks were moral shields; without them the marchers had lost a lucky charm. They felt less like crusaders for justice and more like what they resembled — scared, angry kids in T-shirts facing well-drilled troops with automatic weapons. They stood their ground as long as they dared, too long for some of them. At least nine people were killed, according to patchy reports, and eleven others injured. The dead included a Japanese photographer. |
| Posted by:3dc |
| #8 Though I'm no longer in the AO, I've been there as recently as late June. The Burmese people (and most of the many ethnic groups) are passive by nature but in the past, the Burmese did have a vibrant warrior culture - ask any Thai ! My sense is the reports of deaths are undereported by a factor of 100. Should have more insights in few days. This could get very ugly. |
| Posted by: Bangkok Billy 2007-09-28 22:27 |
| #7 Burma. PIMF! |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-09-28 19:26 |
| #6 Apparently most males in Bhurma do two stints as monks: at age 16 and again at 20 or so. This isn't excess children being sent away to be fed by the monasteries, or the few who feel a call to the religious life. And the monasteries can refuse to allow the military to participate in religious rites. So the junta may well be taking a real risk of revolt in the ranks, if I understand some of the things I read correctly. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-09-28 19:26 |
| #5 If they were fighting shaolin monks like in the old Kung Fu Theater movies they wouldn't take this shit lying donw. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2007-09-28 18:20 |
| #4 There has to be somewhat to manipulate this. Hell the Communists convinced the Bhuddists in Vietnam that the Diem regime was going to enforce Catholocism, thus convincing them to burn themselves alive in front of cameras. There has to be something that can be said or done to bring that sort of resolve out in the monks. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2007-09-28 12:18 |
| #3 Think the general's give a shit about world opinion? Take the army, give the points... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-09-28 11:38 |
| #2 And from the left the sound of crickets. There is no anti-Jewish, anti-British or anti-American angle and consequently they don't care. That and the paymasters of street protest back the junta. |
| Posted by: Excalibur 2007-09-28 11:31 |
| #1 But of course no one wants to acknowledge how communist China is playing both sides of the fence in this dispute. Perish any thought that a socialist regional superpower might want to influence the upshot of this immensely important Southeast Asian territorial outcome. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-09-28 02:22 |