Buddhist monks vow to protest

Buddhist monks rose against the totalitarian country about which Orwell wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four when it was in the British Empire (robertamsterdam.com).

Monks vow to continue Burma protest
AFP (SMH.au.com, Nov. 16, 2011)

The Saffron Revolution never really ended. Five Buddhist monks have staged a rare protest in army-dominated [totalitarian police state] Burma, at one point drawing a crowd of about 500 people with calls for peace and the immediate release of political prisoners.

After talks with senior clerics, the monks said they would continue protesting in Mandalay, the country's second-largest city, for the next three days, giving a speech each day to spell out their demands.

The five in their [saffron and] maroon-clad robes kicked off their demonstration early on Tuesday [Nov. 15, 2011] by briefly locking themselves in a building in a monastic compound a day after an expected amnesty for political prisoners failed to materialize. More

Buddhist monks led a series of uprisings against an Orwellian
government called the Saffron Revolution starting in 2007.

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UN envoy meets with Burma's Suu Kyi

Tomas Ojea Quintana, center, U.N. special envoy on human rights in Myanmar, leaves after meeting with Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi, right, at her home on Aug. 24, 2011, in Rangoon (AP/Khin Maung Win).

RANGOON, Burma (AP) — Burma's pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi says she is encouraged after meeting with the U.N. human rights envoy to Burma (Myanmar).

She says Wednesday's 90-minute meeting in the former capital with Tomas Ojea Quintana and leaders of her disbanded National League for Democracy party focused on the country's more than 2,000 political prisoners and other human rights issues. She says Quintana has a "genuine will to help improve human rights conditions in Myanmar."

Quintana says he has had "fruitful meetings" with government ministers and representatives of political parties. He will brief the media Thursday. His five-day visit to Burma is his first since a nominally civilian [still militaristic authoritarian] government took power in March. He was refused a visa for over a year.

• uscampaignforburma.org
• burmaitcantwait.org

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