[Dialogue] Burma trip report

Wed Oct 10 07:49:07 EDT 2007

Richard Deats and I met in the Philippines in 1959 and have been friends since.  He is just back from Burma, and sent this report.  Toward the end, he recommends a petition we can sign - I put it in red.
Janice Ulangca

http://blog.beliefnet.com/godspolitics/2007/10/upheaval-in-burma-by-
richard-d.html

Monday, October 01, 2007

Upheaval in Burma (by Richard Deats) 

Suddenly the media was reporting that thousands of protesters were 
marching in Rangoon, Burma (or Yangon, Myanmar, as it is officially 
called since the governing military junta renamed it in 1990). And 
the front ranks were led by Buddhist monks in brown robes holding 
banners that said, "Love and kindness must win over everything." Nuns 
in their pink robes were also present in growing numbers.

The protests were sparked by a 500 percent price rise in fuel costs 
put in place on Aug. 19 (without announcement or explanation, not 
thought necessary by the dictatorial rulers). For a country mired in 
poverty and harsh repression, the resulting rise in prices of 
necessities caused mounting anger. Despite the fear of speaking out 
against the government, protests began to spread across the country. 
In the town of Bago, about 50 persons marched, though without signs 
or chants. They were arrested and jailed. As word spread, 2000 people 
turned out, linked arms around the jail, and refused to leave until 
the 50 persons were released. In another town, Cheuk, about 100 
marched four abreast and keeping several meters apart (to circumvent 
the law of no gatherings of more than five). After a brutal Sept. 5 
crackdown on monks demonstrating in central Burma, the armed forces 
refused to apologize as demanded by the monks.

Protests grew, and by the third week of September, thousands, then 
tens of thousands of monks marched, most dramatically in the two 
major cities of Yangon and Mandalay, with up to 100,000 monks and 
increasing numbers of civilians. The military even allowed hundreds 
of monks to march to the home of Aung San Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel 
Peace Prize winner who has been under house arrest for 12 of the past 
18 years. A revered leader in the tradition of Gandhian nonviolence, 
she has long called for a "revolution of the Spirit." Her phone lines 
cut, her writings banned, photos and even the speaking of her name 
forbidden, she nonetheless has a mystical hold on the people. When 
she came out of her house, the monks chanted the Metta Sutta, the 
Buddha's words on loving kindness, and others called out, "be free 
very soon."

To date, the government has responded with increasing brute force, 
even invading monasteries and dragging monks off to prison. Worldwide 
condemnation has come to the country except from its chief economic 
partners—mainly China, but also India and Russia.

I was in Yangon just before the largest marches began, having been 
invited there by Burmese activists to do a workshop on Gandhian 
nonviolence. We met in homes and out-of-the-way restaurants, hoping 
to be faithful to Suu Kyi's admonition "to persevere in the struggle, 
to make sacrifices in the name of enduring truths, to resist the 
corrupting influences of desire, ill will, ignorance and fear."

Connections. I find the best daily source of photos and news is 
www.irrawaddy.org/. BBC world news is especially good, as is the 
NYTimes. An excellent statement by the Buddhist Peace Fellowship can 
be found at www.buddhistnews.tv, You can sign an emergency petition 
to Chinese Premier Hu Jntao and the UN Security Council at Avaaz.org. 
I recommend Suu Kyi's Freedom from Fear (1995 revised, expanded), 
Bertil Lintner's Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma's Unfinished Renaissance 
(1992)and the new Perfect Hostage. A Life of Aung San Suu Kyi by 
Justin Wintle(Hutchinson/Random House)

Richard Deats, is editor emeritus of Fellowship magazine, the 
International FOR governing committee, and author of Mahatma Gandhi: 
Nonviolent Liberator. You can sign an emergency petition to China's 
president Hu Jintao and the UN Security Council at Avaaz.org. Follow 
this story at Irrawaddy News, covering Burma and Southeast Asia. 

posted by God's Politics @ 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (7) | Add 
to: Add to Del.icio.us 

__._,_.___

Richard Deats

117 North Broadway

Nyack, NY 10960

The job of the peacemaker is to stop war. To purify the world. To get it saved from poverty and riches. To heal the sick. To comfort the sad. To wake up those who have not yet found God. To create joy and beauty wherever you go. To find God in everything, and in everyone.

Muriel Lester

My heart is moved by all I cannot save: so much has been destroyed. I have to cast my lot with those who age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world.   Adrienne Rich

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.            Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Janice Ulangca
3413 Stratford Drive
Vestal, NY  13850
607-797-4595
aulangca at stny.rr.com
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