September 29, 2007	Saturday	Ramazan 16, 1428

BANGKOK: Myanmar’s security forces have beaten and killed Buddhist monks leading anti-junta protests, but the violence against the spiritual leaders has only fuelled anger against the generals, observers said on Friday.

In a country where almost every man, including most soldiers, has spent some time in a Buddhist monastery, the moral authority of the monks has terrified the isolated military regime, they said.

The violent crackdown and arrests of monks this week have put a halt for now to the mass processions of tens of thousands of saffron and red-robed monks -- but they have also deeply angered and emboldened youths and students in the country formerly known as Burma.

“When the monks came out we could see that more people overcame their fear and joined the protests,” said Debbie Stothard, coordinator of the Alternative Asean Network on Burma.

“The pictures of how monks were brutalised have made people angry rather than fearful. It has raised public contempt for the authorities.

“The soldiers who shot the monks should be hit by lightning,” angry crowds of protesters shouted at troops on Thursday in downtown Yangon, where at least three monks were killed in this week’s bloody crackdown.

“In 1988 students were leading the protests, but now the monks are leading,” said Myanmar expert Win Min, an exile and veteran of the August 1988 protests that ended with troops killing at least 3,000 people.

“The monks are the spiritual leaders of Burmese society, like the Catholic church in the Philippines,” said Win Min, likening their role to that of Catholic priests in the 1986 “people power” revolution against Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

“It was a very significant turnaround that the military used violence against the monks,” he said. “It added fuel to the fire.” The bloodshed has appalled the faithful in the Buddhist nation, where troops have ransacked monasteries and dormitories, leaving the floors of prayer and meditation rooms covered in broken glass and pools of blood.

Buddhist monks, who usually stay aloof from politics and other worldly affairs, have taken a leading role in the largest anti-government protests in almost 20 years.

Up to 1,000 monks in the main city Yangon may now be under some form of detention, said Win Min, who teaches at Chiang Mai University in Thailand.

“The monks are surrounded by soldiers,” he said. “They are locked up and they’ve been warned they will be shot if they go out.” Aung Naing Oo, another Thailand-based Myanmar expert, also said the clampdown had kept many monks in Yangon inside their monasteries and off the streets, although they had taken part in rallies in northern Mandalay.

“The monasteries have been raided, some of the monasteries have been shut down or blocked, so the monks basically cannot participate,” he said. “That’s why we didn’t see many monks yesterday.” “People are really angry. They are coming out and taking on the junta themselves.” Stothard said opposition by the monks represented a serious blow to the military which has ruled the Southeast Asian country for the past 45 years.—AFP