Burmese Monks Defy Military Junta

Press Release: Terry Evans

19 September

Yesterday monks across Burma demonstrated as they commenced a boycott of Burmese generals and their families.

The protests are the biggest challenge to the ruling junta since the mass uprising of August 1988.  Witnesses said the marching monks were disciplined and didn’t allow supporters and bystanders to join them.  However tens of thousands of onlookers applauded the protesting monks as they marched.

Their alms boycott, called “patam nikkujjana kamma,” is the first time in 18 years that monks have withheld their recognition of leading members of the military junta.

A member of the Alliance of All Burmese Buddhist Monks has said: “This is a fight between dhamma and ah-dhamma (between justice and injustice).” Most of Burma’s 500,000 monks are expected to join the boycott.

ENDS