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Letter to the editor

Refugees bring accounts of protests in Myanmar

Their stories reveal the challenge to the junta and its crackdown.

By THOMAS FULLER, Washington Post
Published October 28, 2007

MAE SOT, Thailand - The young Buddhist monk arrived here by boat this month from Myanmar, exhausted and disheveled, with no passport, the stubble of his hair dyed blond for a disguise, and wearing a traditional Myanmar wrap instead of his saffron-colored robe. He had to elude capture by running barefoot, racing 2 miles down a highway, and jumping into bushes when cars passed.

Government troops had been hunting Ashin Kovida for three weeks, since he helped lead pro-democracy protests in Myanmar's largest city, Yangon. Kovida, 24, came to the safety of Mae Sot on Thailand's western border, joining about 20 other refugees, many bringing with them new details of the ongoing crackdown in Myanmar.

From the refugees' stories, a fuller picture is emerging of how a peaceful and apolitical movement by Myanmar's revered Buddhist monks morphed into the most serious challenge to the military junta in two decades.

The refugees also offered first-person accounts of seeing unarmed protesters shot and killed. These accounts could not be independently verified, and Myanmar, also known as Burma, remains largely closed to foreign journalists.

The monks had always planned for the demonstrations to start on Sept. 18 and last nine days - nine being a special number in Buddhist tradition, which holds that you should do something good for nine days. And they had always planned for their protests to be peaceful, according to Kovida and another new refugee, U Pan Cha, a businessman who managed security for the demonstrations in Yangon, also known as Rangoon.

Clapping by soldiers

Pan Cha, who was seasoned in protest during Myanmar's student uprising in 1988, said in an interview that when last month's protests began, he held a regular nightly meeting with a Yangon government official to outline the next day's plans and guarantee security.

Pan Cha said that on the second day of the protests, he saw some soldiers clapping as they watched the procession pass by their post. He said he learned that Senior Gen. Than Shwe, head of the junta, had issued an order to shoot the protesters, but the local official said he would not follow that order. On Sept. 26, Pan Cha said, he got word that a new army unit, from the 66th Division, which for years had been battling ethnic minority rebels from Karen state, had been brought to Yangon, and that day, the violence began.

The government has officially confirmed that 10 people were killed in the crackdown against the demonstrations, which were organized by various groups, some loosely affiliated, in different cities. Pan Cha said he saw snipers shoot and kill six monks directly in front of him at the Shwedagon Pagoda on Sept. 26, and he saw others killed and hundreds beaten and dragged into trucks.

The Yangon demonstrations were sparked by the government's violent reaction to a peaceful protest by monks in the central city of Pakokku. They were opposing a government-mandated fuel price increase in August that would be crippling to the poor. But when they began protesting, they were beaten by local officials.

On Sept. 18, the marches began. Kovida was one of those monks organizing the marches. He said he knew the people would join the monks, so he routed the marches from Shwedagon Pagoda to Sule Pagoda - the two most prominent temples in Yangon - because their busy streets meant that many people would see what was happening.

On Sept. 22, the monks and their supporters won a key symbolic victory. They were allowed to march by the home of Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition party leader under house arrest.

"I was so happy I cried," Pan Cha said, his voice rising as he recalled the moment. "All the world leaders who want to meet with her and are not allowed, but we are allowed to meet. We could make the world know the Burmese people showed unity in support of Suu Kyi."

Liaison is absent

At this point, the marches were becoming more political. On Sept. 23, Pan Cha discussed with the monks a request by the All-Burma Federation of Student Unions, a government-banned group that had been marching with the monks but not officially declaring its presence. Now the students wanted to hold their banner when they marched. Members of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy were also allowed to hold signs.

On the night of Sept. 25, the government liaison did not show up. Pan Cha, suspicious, called a meeting of the monks. "I told them we have to be cautious tomorrow," he said.

The violence began on Sept. 26. Army troops from the new regiment, as well as police, surrounded the monks who had gathered at Shwedagon Pagoda. The monks "started to pray, but the police just started beating them," Pan Cha said.

Kovida is not sure what he will do next. He wants to keep working in the movement for democracy in Myanmar, and he wants to remain a monk.

The government is still trying to find him. On Oct. 18, the junta's newspaper published an article linking Kovida to the discovery of a small TNT stash.

"Because the monks' peaceful demonstrations got international support and the support of the people of Burma, the government does not know how to take more actions against the monks," he said. "So they are trying to say monks are going to use violence. If they take action against the monks without telling a story, it's not good in the international community."

[Last modified October 28, 2007, 01:54:03]