Monks take officials hostage as Burma fuel protests escalate

Source: The Guardian

Ian MacKinnon, south-east Asia correspondent
Friday September 7, 2007
The Guardian

Hundreds of Buddhist monks in Burma held government officials hostage for more than five hours yesterday in a further escalation of the protests against the military regime's crippling increase in fuel prices two weeks ago.

Angry young monks surrounded the largest monastery in the provincial town Pakokku, trapping about 20 officials inside after they apparently came to apologise for soldiers firing shots to break up a demonstration the previous day.

The tense stand-off was eventually ended after a senior abbot intervened to secure the hostages' freedom, but not before the angry monks had burned four of the officials' cars ...

The arrests of 13 leaders of the 88 Generation Student Group and more than 100 others, and the beatings of demonstrators by pro-junta militia who have been mobilised on the streets of the commercial capital, Rangoon, has done little to dampen the mood of anger ...



Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/burma/story/0,,2164266,00.html

Hell, even I could get into that.

Source: Asia Times

BANGKOK - Political tension in military-ruled Myanmar has taken an ominous turn, with soldiers clashing this week with sections of the country's respected Buddhist clergy. The confrontation was the latest in an unfolding drama that has featured rare public protests against the hardline regime for implementing massive hikes in fuel prices in mid-August.

Monks in the central town of Pakokku on Thursday openly defied the regime by burning four cars belonging to local authorities.

"The monks, who are students at a large monastery in Pakokku,
are very angry with the military regime," said Than Win Htut, a senior producer for Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), a radio and TV station run by exiles from Myanmar and based in Oslo, Norway.

Clashes first erupted on Wednesday between soldiers and monks in Pakokku town, some 500 kilometers north of the old capital Yangon. That morning, soldiers fired warning shots to break up a crowd of more than 300 monks, representing apparently the first time security forces have used their firearms since the protests against the fuel hike began last month.

Read more: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/II08Ae04.html