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Capitalizing on Burma's Autumn of Dissent
Burmese and Thai monks praying in October at a monastery in Mae Sot, Thailand, a border town where opposition leaders are organizing to remove Burma's military rulers.
(By Paula Bronstein -- Getty Images)
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But there is plenty of talk here about guns. It is focused on 17 ethnic groups that since the 1990s have suspended armed conflict with the military.
The leaders of ethnic groups such as the Shan and the Wa have been allowed to trade timber, opium and other commodities. They keep their guns but do not fight.
Thanks to these cease-fire deals, the generals have enjoyed a break from costly and unwinnable guerrilla wars in the mountains along the Burma-Thailand border. But deals with the generals have brought little economic or social benefit to the ethnic minorities, according to diplomats.
Now, leaders of several of the ethnic groups are talking with the leaders of Suu Kyi's exiled political party and other opposition leaders about resuming their conflicts -- as a way of pressuring the military to negotiate seriously with Suu Kyi.
"Without this kind of pressure, the military regime does not move, and that is for sure," said Mahn Sha, secretary general of the Karen National Union. The Karen have refused to sign a cease-fire with the military.
In Burma, where about 90 percent of the population is Buddhist, monks have periodically played major political roles.
In the 1930s, they took part in protests against British colonial rule. They joined students in 1988 street demonstrations. But this September, according to opposition leaders here in Mae Sot, monks moved to center stage in determining Burma's future. They were attacked by the military in public and on camera, and those images have been widely disseminated inside Burma, on CDs and DVDs, according to Maung Maung.
In the weeks since their marches were broken up and they were dispersed from monasteries, many of Burma's monks have refused to accept alms from members of the military or their families, according to opposition leaders, diplomats and two monks who recently fled the country.
In Burmese culture, giving food and gifts to monks is a primary way of accumulating merit for the next life.
Annoyed by the monks' refusal to accept their offerings, some military officers and their wives have threatened the monks and forced them to take food and other gifts, said Kowvida, 26, a monk who said he took part in the September marches and fled Rangoon in late October.
"In these cases, we accept unwillingly and then throw it away," Kowvida said.
Asked if he believes more street protests by the monks are likely, Kowvida said he honestly does not know. But he said that with the passage of time anger is building, not ebbing.
"There is a fire of dissatisfaction," he said, "and I think it will explode sometime."
