Under cover of a curfew, security forces raided monasteries and pagodas across the city. At about 2am, they descended on Ngwe Kya Yan, smashing windows, decapitating statues of Buddha, stealing jewellery and cash and thrashing monks with cudgels.
The next morning, the director-general of Burma's Religious Affairs Department visited the monastery to ask its abbot to leave for the Kaba Aya Pagoda in another part of the city. The engineer, who was there, said the abbot told the official: "I will not abandon this place."
He said: "The director-general told the monks to clean up all the blood, but they refused because they wanted to show what had happened."
At 11.30am, after the official delegation left, the soldiers and police returned with members of an official militia called Masters of Force.
The engineer said: "From every side ... people came out and surrounded the monastery. The soldiers and police inside began to panic because they cannot leave."
- Excerpted from Locals die defending monks
Nepali Monks Rally For Burmese Pals
6 comments:
Sometimes you have to stay up pretty late to get murst!
Free Burma first!
Hmmm, there seems to be a bit of a problem with the Free Burma! petition widget. The last input box above send is for country.
In Chevron News:
Chevron Corp. of San Ramon is drawing harsh criticism for its business ties to Burma, the Asian nation conducting a brutal military crackdown.
The company owns part of a natural gas project in Burma, where soldiers crushed pro-democracy protests last week and killed at least 10 people.
U.S. sanctions prevent most U.S. companies from working in Burma, but Chevron's investment there existed before the sanctions were imposed and continues under a grandfather clause. As a result, the company is one of the few large Western companies left in the country.
Now Chevron faces pressure to pull out.
Human rights activists are calling on the company to either leave Burma or persuade the country's military rulers to stop killing demonstrators. Bloggers are encouraging people to flood Chevron's phone and fax lines in protest. Some are calling for a boycott...
Chevron's links to Burma stir critics to demand it pull out
Global Hypocrisy on Burma
Between 200-300 monks killed in crackdown
Burma's monks start to fight back
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