Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Saffron Revolution
ThenextmajorupheavalinBurmesesociety-the
SaffronRevolution
(asithasbeennamed
inhonourofthemonkswhoplayedaleadingpartinit)-wasinsomewaysarerunofthepre-
vious protests of 1988. After a decade during which anti-government protests had been vir-
tually unknown, simmering popular discontent with military rule once again abruptly boiled
over in August 2007 following the junta's decision to suddenly remove fuel subsidies, caus-
ing petrol prices to rise by two-thirds overnight.
The first protests were held by monks in the town of
Pakokku
, from where public shows
of dissent rapidly spread nationwide. By September, thousands of monks and other demon-
strators were marching daily through Yangon and Mandalay (on September 24 as many as
100,000 are estimated to have taken to the streets in Yangon alone).
Then, just as in 1988, the military hit back with their customary brutality - Than Shwe was
rumoured to have taken personal charge of the army after senior commanders had refused
to use force against the demonstrations. Rumours circulated that the military had purchased
large quantities of monastic robes and were busily shaving their heads in order to penetrate
the ranks of the protesting monks; convicted criminals were also released, and being ordered
to do the same. Starting in late September soldiers began attacking and tear-gassing protest-
ers. Thousands were beaten and dozens shot, while reports of monks being abducted, beaten
and possibly murdered were widely circulated. Protesters were arrested and sentenced, usu-
allytomanyyearsofhardlabour.Althoughtheorgyofkillingseenin1988wasnotrepeated,
the crackdown was sufficient to eventually quell the uprising.
Further international sanctions and trade restrictions ensued. Rumours of dissension within
the ranks of the generals, however, and reports that many soldiers and army officers had re-
fused orders to take violent action against demonstrators, particularly monks, suggested that
thetidemightfinallybeturningagainsttheregime,whosubsequentlyannouncedthatnation-
wide elections would be held in 2010.
Cyclone Nargis
Then,justasitseemedtheremightfinallybelightattheendofthetunnel,Myanmarsuffered
the greatest natural disaster in its entire recorded history. On May 3, 2008,
Cyclone Nargis
swept in from the Bay of Bengal, hitting the Delta region with little warning and unpreced-
ented force. Large swathes of the densely populated, low-lying region were erased from the
map in a matter of hours, with an estimated 130,000 dead, and a million left homeless and
without food or water.
The biblical scale of the cyclone's devastation was impossible to grasp. Even more shock-
ing, however, was the response of the embattled junta, who over the following month sys-
tematically blocked all offers of international aid, while doing almost nothing themselves to
assist the survivors of the tragedy. International aid supplies and disaster experts were kept
