Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
monks denounced the price hikes in a demonstration in Pakokku, the protests escalated.
The military responded with gunfire and allegedly beat one monk to death.
In response, the All Burma Monks Alliance (ABMA) was formed, denouncing the rul-
ing government as an 'evil military dictatorship' and refusing to accept alms from milit-
ary officials. By 17 September daily marches began, swelling in numbers across major
cities including Yangon, Mandalay, Meiktila and Sittwe.
According to research by Asean and the UN Cyclone Nargis caused 84,537 deaths and
53,836 missing people - 138,373 in all, 61% of whom were female. Other estimates are
even higher, suggesting 300,000 were lost. Children, unable to withstand the inflow of
water, were most vulnerable to drowning.
Unexpectedly, monk-led crowds were allowed to pray with Aung San Suu Kyi from
outside her house gates on 22 September. Two days later anything from 50,000 to
150,000 protestors marched through the streets of Yangon in what would become known
as the 'Saffron Revolution'. All the while the government watched, photographing parti-
cipants.
On 26 September the army began shooting protestors and imposed a curfew. By the
end of the week monasteries had been raided, around 3000 people had been arrested and
more than 30 were dead, including a Japanese photographer whose killing in central Yan-
gon was captured on video.
A DIFFERENT KIND OF REVOLUTION
As David Steinberg points out in Burma/Myanmar: What Everyone Needs to Know,
the Saffron Revolution was neither saffron nor a revolution. Burmese monks wear
maroon (not saffron) coloured robes for a start. The revolutionary part of the
events of 2007 was that, for the first time, they were broadcast via smuggled-out
videos on satellite TV or the internet. 'For the first time in Burmese history, violent
suppression by the state was not simply a matter of rumour but was palpably vis-
ible', writes Steinberg. For a nail-biting account of how such incendiary video evid-
ence was captured, watch the Oscar-nominated documentary Burma VJ
(
www.burmavjmovie.com
).
