Burma anti-junta protests spread

[shrike]

BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | Burma anti-junta protests spread

Two thousand monks went on the march in Mandalay, while at least 1,000 rallied in Rangoon. Protests were also taking place in five townships across Burma. It comes a day after the leaders of the demonstrations vowed to continue until the military government collapsed. They want the Burmese people to pray in their doorways for 15 minutes at 2000 on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. ... BBC South Asia correspondent Jonathan Head says many of the devotees held their begging bowls upside down as a symbol of anti-government protest. The problem for Burma's rulers is that they are reluctant to confront the publicly revered monks for fear of enraging the people, our correspondent says, but the longer they allow the demonstrations to go on, the weaker they look. ... The protests began last month when the government doubled fuel prices. But they have taken on new momentum this week since the religious order became more widely involved. On Friday, the Alliance of All Burmese Buddhist Monks branded Burma's military rulers "the enemy of the people". The organisation pledged to continue their peaceful demonstrations until they had "wiped the military dictatorship from the land". Some 1,500 monks took to the streets of Rangoon on Friday in protest at recent government attempts to silence critics.

[Nono]

Yes, for many years the junta has been buying off the clergy with nice new temples and what-not. If it's now lost their support, it's in for a hard time.

I wonder how the generals' friends in Peking and New Delhi are going to help them out of this one.