Deepak Nagpal
India’s neighbourhood - be it Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, Sri Lanka, Nepal or Myanmar - has always remained in the grip of trouble. The issues that these countries have been confronting include terrorism, Maoist violence, drug trafficking etc. However, the issue of democracy is something which has always hogged headlines in these nations.
Nepal last year witnessed the end of King’s rule, following a mass uprising against him in April. Although there is an elected government in Pakistan, yet it has been the dictatorial President Pervez Musharraf, the country’s Army chief, who has been calling the shots. In Bangladesh too, a caretaker government has been ruling for quite some time.
In Myanmar, India’s neighbour in the northeast, the military has been in power since 1962. The country’s democracy icon, Aung San Suu Kyi - the leader of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party – has been under house arrest for much of the last 17 years. However, it seems tough times have now begun for the Southeast Asian nation’s military regime, or the Junta.
The predominantly Buddhist nation, with which India has been seeking to expand its economic ties, particularly in the energy sector, has been witnessing protests ever since the military refused to recognise the results of a democratic election in 1990, won by the pro-democracy NLD of Suu Kyi, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her peaceful and non-violent struggle under the military dictatorship.
However, the Junta’s decision to implement a sharp hike in fuel prices in mid-August triggered mass protests against 45 years of military rule. In fact, on September 24, tens of thousands of people, led by Buddhist monks, marched through Myanmar`s largest city, Yangon, in what was the biggest demonstration against the ruling generals since they crushed a student-led uprising in 1988, in which an estimated 3,000 people were killed.
Earlier on September 22, the Buddhist monks marched past police barricades to the home of detained opposition leader Suu Kyi. Unlike before, the protesters this time faced no opposition from the authorities in marching up to her decaying lakeside villa in the country’s former capital Yangon (formerly Rangoon). The Nobel laureate appeared in a doorway and prayed with the monks for 15 minutes. It was the first time she was seen in public since May 2003. However, reports said the detained democracy leader had been moved to the notorious Insein prison a day after her rare public appearance.
Earlier on August 15, the Junta doubled the diesel prices without any warning, and also increased the cost of compressed natural gas five-fold. This did not go down well with the Myanmarese people, majority of whom have always been unhappy with the way the country was being run by the military rulers. Sporadic protest marches, mostly by social activists and the opposition NLD, against the steep fuel prices hike began and on August 23, the military arrested 13 prominent dissidents. They face up to 20 years in jail. Five days later, Buddhist monks joined in the demonstrations for the first time, leading a march in the northwest city of Sittwe.
The protests took a violent turn with soldiers firing warning shots on September 5 to halt 500 marching monks in Pakokku, 370 miles northwest of Yangon. This action of the military triggered a wave of anger and the very next day, several hundred Pakokku monks held government officials hostage for more than four hours and torched their cars. They even went to the extent of threatening the military, demanding an apology from the Junta for assaulting monks in Pakokku. However, instead of apologising, the rulers chose to crack down and arrested two monks in Sittwe on September 16. The monks were the first to members of the priesthood to be detained by the State.
Myanmar-language foreign radio stations reported the next day that an alliance of monks will no more accept alms from the ruling generals, their families and associates. Political analysts view the threat as a very serious one in the devoutly Buddhist country.
The tussle between the protesters and military rulers continued, but the Junta allowed 500 monks on September 20 into Yangon`s Shwedagon Pagoda, the country’s holiest shrine, to pray. This came after the monks were prevented from visiting the shrine for three days. On the very same day, armed police erected barbed wire barricades near Yangon University, which was the focus of the 1988 uprisings.
Just a day before Myanmar witnessed its biggest anti-Junta protests in 20 years, Buddhist nuns joined monk protests for the first time on September 23, in what was a highly a symbolic move.
And three days later, the Junta imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew in the country`s two main cities after deploying security forces into Yangon to try to end the escalating protests.
The growing tension in the Southeast Asian country, formerly known as Burma, has also attracted attention at the annual UN General Assembly in New York. The international community, in a bid to prevent a repeat of the 1988 violence, has urged restraint by the Junta.
US President George W Bush, in his address to the assembly on Tuesday, called on all nations to "help the Myanmarese people reclaim their freedom". He also announced fresh sanctions by Washington against Myanmar’s generals, their supporters and families. The generals have been living with sanctions for years. "We will impose an expanded visa ban on those responsible for the most egregious violations of human rights," he said, declaring that Americans were "outraged" by rights abuses in Myanmar. Summing up the situation in Myanmar, the US leader said, "Basic freedoms of speech, assembly and worship are severely restricted. Ethnic minorities are persecuted. Forced child labour, human trafficking and rape are common."
The 27-nation European Union said it would "reinforce and strengthen" sanctions against the military rulers if the Junta used force to put down demonstrations.
The UN human rights investigator for Myanmar, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, said he feared "very severe repression". "It is an emergency," he added.
Commenting on the prevailing situation in the neighbouring country, an Indian Foreign Ministry official said, "It is too early to say anything on how these protests will shape up, we have to wait and watch."
It is expected that the generals will hold crisis meetings this week in the country’s new capital, Naypyidaw, 390km north of colonial-era Yangon, to formulate a strategy on how to tackle the biggest anti-military rule protests since they ruthlessly crushed a mass uprising in 1988. The current military regime is led by Senior General Than Shwe, who became the military supremo in 1992 after his predecessor, General Saw Maung, retired on health grounds.
