shine Jesus shine

Sorry all for posting the long articles on the unrest in Myanmar.

Thousand apologies!

Just really worried about how the whole protest and violence will affect my friends there as well as the future of this already very repressed country. I wonder if the junta is going to tighten the rein they have over the people after this episode. Will Myanmar become like North Korea? Will they close their doors to the world? Will they reject the help from the UN? Will there be a future for Myanmar?

Shine Jesus, shine! Fill this land with the Father's Glory!
Blaze Spirit blaze! Set our hearts on fire!
Flow river flow! Flood this nation with grace and mercy!
Send forth Your word, Lord and let there be light!

wisdom to be upon the leaders!!!

Warning shots fired as Myanmar clashes flare again

YANGON - Warning shots were fired as skirmishes broke out at demonstrations in several locations around Yangon on Thursday, while more than 10,000 people faced off against police around the Sule Pagoda, witnesses said.

Security forces clashed with protesters in at least three locations in eastern Yangon, after hundreds of people rushed to protect monks who were being hauled away, they said.

Only about five Buddhist monks were seen in the middle of the crowd, which was singing the national anthem and chanting slogans about independence hero General Aung San, the father of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

'General Aung San would never order the military to kill the people,' they shouted.

In what appeared to be an attempt to stifle fresh demonstrations by preventing monks from reaching central Yangon, at least six truckloads of Buddhist clergy were seen being driven from their monasteries, they said.

The witnesses said there were hundreds of demonstrators in each location and that police had threatened to open fire if they failed to disperse.

The biggest flare-up was at the central market in the outlying township of Iankin.
In the city centre, the focus of a bloody crackdown on Wednesday that left at least four people dead and 100 injured, protesters returned to streets surrounding the iconic Sule Pagoda.

Songs of protest

Clapping their hands and singing the national anthem, they faced off against some 50 armed police and soldiers who blocked their path, witnesses said.

The 5,000-strong crowd also chanted: 'May we be free of all dangers, may we be free of poverty, may there be peace in hearts and minds.' Security forces have sealed off the Sule Pagoda, a key rallying point in recent anti-government protests led by Buddhist monks.

Security was tight around the nation's commercial hub Yangon, with plainclothes police and militia patrolling the streets.

Soldiers had also sealed off the Shwedagon Pagoda, the country's most important shrine, and military trucks were seen riding through the city.

Most shops and businesses had closed their doors after security forces used batons, warning shots and tear gas Wednesday to try to break up protesters who regrouped and carried on with their rallies throughout the day.

More bloodshed feared

Facing the most serious challenge to its authority since 1988, the junta admitted one man was killed and three wounded when soldiers fired warning shots and tear gas at crowds on Wednesday.

Protest leaders said at least five monks were killed as soldiers and riot police tried to disperse the biggest crowds in a month of marches against grinding poverty.

'We would like to call on the student monks to keep on struggling peacefully,' one said on the BBC Burmese service. 'Five monks have sacrificed their lives for our religion.'

Some witnesses said as many as 100,000 people packed the former capital Yangon on Wednesday as the streets echoed with deafening roars of anger at the use of violence against monks.

Overnight, police arrested two senior members of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), the party's spokesman said. Two opposition politicians from other parties were also detained.

China says 'no' to sanctions

The international outrage at Wednesday's use of warning shots, tear gas and baton charges against monks and unarmed civilians was loud by any standards.

United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called it a 'tragedy' and urged the generals to allow a UN envoy to visit and meet detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

'The regime has reacted brutally to people who were simply protesting peacefully,' Dr Rice said on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon said he would dispatch special envoy Ibrahim Gambari to South-east Asia in hope the hope that the generals would let him in.

However, in a sign of rifts within the international community at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council in New York, China ruled out sanctions or an official condemnation of the use of force.

History suggests the junta will not be moved by threats from France and Britain - former imperial powers - that leaders would be held responsible for bloodshed. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the 'age of impunity' was over.

The United States and the 27-nation European Union called on the generals to start a dialogue with pro-democracy leaders, including Nobel laureate Suu Kyi, and ethnic minority groups.

Foreign ministers of the Group of Eight industrial nations agreed on a similar formula but without a call for sanctions, in deference to Russia.

Participants said Dr Rice and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, whose country has sided with China in blocking UN moves against Myanmar, clashed over the sanctions issue.

Washington and Paris called on China to use its influence to convince the junta to stop the crackdown.

Diplomats say China has privately been speaking with the Myanmar generals to convey international concern, but Beijing has so far refrained from any public criticism. -- REUTERS, AFP

Source: StraitsTimes.com

more news about myanmar

Myanmar police use tear gas, dozens arrested

YANGON - MYANMAR security forces used tear gas and fired warning shots on Wednesday to disperse monks trying to enter Yangon's Shwedagon Pagoda, the starting point for mass protests they have led, and arrested about 80, witnesses said

The junta had banned all public gatherings of more than five people and imposed a nighttime curfew following eight days of anti-government marches led by monks in Yangon and other areas of the country, including the largest in nearly two decades.

Firing shots into the air, beating their shields with batons and shouting orders to disperse, the police chased some of the monks and about 200 of their supporters while others tried to stubbornly hold their place near the eastern gate to the vast shrine complex.

Some fell to the ground amid the chaos and at least one monks was seen struck with a baton. There were unconfirmed reports of others being beaten.

Soldiers with assault rifles had earlier blocked all four major entrances to the soaring pagoda, one of the most sacred in Myanmar, and sealed other flashpoints of anti-government protests.

Security forces fired shots over the heads of a large crowd near the Sule Pagoda in central Yangon, sending people fleeing for cover, a witness said.

As the Buddhist monks neared the pagoda, thousands of people had cheered the clergy and then began shouting at the security forces 'You are fools! You are fools!'

Soldiers and police then fired the warning shots and used tear gas to disperse the crowd, sending people swarming to get away, witnesses said.

Activist arrested

A comedian famed for his anti-government jibes became the first well-known activist rounded up following the protests.

Zarganar, who uses only one name, was taken away from his home overnight by authorities shortly after midnight. His family members said on Wednesday that they were told he had been 'called in for temporary questioning.'

Along with actor Kyaw Thu and poet Aung Way, Zarganar led a committee that provided food and other necessities to the monks who have spearheaded the protests. He had earlier been imprisoned twice and his comedy routines were banned for their satirical jokes about the regime.

The fates of the actor and poet were not immediately known, but there were unconfirmed reports from dissident groups of more than half a dozen other arrests.

Myanmar's leaders warned monks to stop the protests after some 100,000 people joined marches in the country's biggest city, Yangon, on Monday in the largest anti-government demonstrations since a 1988 pro-democracy uprising was violently suppressed.

The junta imposed the 9pm-to-5am curfew and ban on public assembly after 35,000 people monks and their supporters defied the warnings to stage another day of protests on Tuesday.
The junta has not used force so far to stop the demonstrations.

But troops in full battle gear and police swarmed around Yangon's Shwedagon Pagoda and Mahamuni Paya Pagoda, among the most sacred sites in the country.

Mandalay

In Mandalay, Myanmar's second largest city, more than 100 soldiers armed with assault rifles were deployed around the Mahamuni Paya Pagoda, erecting a barricade and barbed wire at the gate from which monks had marched out to protest.

Five military trucks were seen inside the monastery compound, while other soldiers were stationed along the road into the fabled city of temples and palaces.

'We are so afraid, the soldiers are ready to fire on civilians at any time,' a man near the pagoda said, asking that his name not be used for fear of reprisals.

If the military responds to new protests with force, it could further isolate Myanmar from the international community. It would almost certainly put pressure on Myanmar's top economic and diplomatic supporter, China, which is eager to burnish its international image before next year's Olympics in Beijing.

If monks who are leading the protests are mistreated, that could outrage the predominantly Buddhist country, where clerics are revered. But if the junta backs down, it risks appearing weak and emboldening protesters, which could escalate the tension.

When faced with a similar crisis in 1988, the government harshly suppressed a student-led democracy uprising. Security forces fired into crowds of peaceful demonstrators and killed thousands, traumatizing the nation.

Call for peace

Foreign governments and religious leaders have urged the junta to deal peacefully with the situation. They included the Dalai Lama and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, both Nobel Peace Prize laureates like detained Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

US sanctions
US President George W. Bush announced new sanctions against Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, accusing the military dictatorship of imposing 'a 19-year reign of fear' that denies basic freedoms of speech, assembly and worship.

President Bush said the US would tighten economic sanctions on leaders of the regime and their financial backers, and impose an expanded visa ban on those responsible for human rights violations and their families.

EU

The European Union also threatened to strengthen existing sanctions against the regime if it uses violence to put down the demonstrations.

Britain's ambassador to Myanmar, Mark Canning, met Tuesday with some of Myanmar's leaders, urging continued restraint. Canning said he told ministers that the 'demonstrations have been peaceful and well-disciplined.' 'It will be disastrous in the eyes of the world on Myanmar if the authorities use force,' he told them, saying that they assured him the situation would be handled with caution. -- AP

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Myanmar imposes night curfews

Myanmar imposes night curfews

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YANGON - MYANMAR'S junta slapped dusk-till-dawn curfews on the country's two largest cities late on Tuesday after Buddhist monks defied warnings of a crackdown and led 100,000 people in another day of mass protests.

The edict, effective on Wednesday in Yangon and Mandalay, came after the ruling generals - under pressure after eight straight days of peaceful protests led by the monks - sent truckloads of armed soldiers and riot police into Yangon.

'This order was issued because of the protests. Do not organise groups of more than five people,' the announcement said, reiterating a long-time ban on assemblies that has been ignored as the number of demonstrators has swelled.

US sanctions

The show of force, which could spark a showdown with protesters who pledged to take to the streets again on Wednesday, came as US President George W. Bush ramped up the pressure by imposing fresh sanctions against the regime.

President Bush said the US would tighten economic sanctions on the junta leaders and their financial backers, and impose an expanded visa ban on those responsible for human rights violations and their families.

'Americans are outraged by the situation in Myanmar, where a military junta has imposed a 19 year reign of fear,' he told the UN General Assembly.

'The ruling junta remains unyielding, yet the people's desire for freedom is unmistakable.'
The European Union also threatened to strengthen exsting sanctions against the regime if it uses violence to put down the demonstrations.

Sarkozy to meet opposition leaders

French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday urged the government of Myanmar to respect nationwide peaceful protests and said he planned to meet a delegation of Burmese government opponents in Paris.

President Sarkozy did not say who he would meet with, but Sein Win, one of the leaders of the opposition in exile, indirectly confirmed he would be meeting with President Sarkozy in an interview with the French daily La Croix, to be published in Wednesday's edition.

'I am extremely preoccupied with the situation in Myanmar,' President Sarkozy told reporters on the sidelines of the opening of the UN General Assembly in New York. 'I would like to launch an appeal that the spontaneous and peaceful protests that express a legitimate political and social claim not be suppressed by force at any time.'

Asked what he would tell President Sarkozy, Mr Win said: 'Above all, not to use force' and seek as quickly as possible a Security Council meeting to vote 'severe' resolutions against the country.
Mr Win said he believed the confrontation between the protesters and the authorities would end in spilled blood.

'In the end, it is clear that the army will fire on the crowd,' La Croix quoted him as saying.

The French Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that French authorities 'firmly reiterated their call for the freedom of all political prisoners and in particular that of Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.' Ms Suu Kyi was prevented from running in the 1990 elections but is the symbol of the pro-democracy movement in Myanmar.

Manila calls for democratic reforms

Meanwhile, Philippines Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo said that the military rulers should implement democratic reforms immediately as promised and avoid greater international isolation.

'As far as we are concerned, they have been promising Asean that they will move on the roadmap to democracy. That promise has been repeated so many times,' Mr Romulo lamented.
Myanmar and the Philippines are members of the Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean), which has taken a soft policy on Myanmar.

Yangon: 'restricted area'

The new restrictions, which included the 9pm to 5am curfew and the designation of Yangon as a 'restricted area', were announced late on Tuesday via loudspeakers mounted on government vehicles riding through Yangon.

The measures were to remain in effect for 60 days, the announcement said.

Myanmar's military government is facing the biggest public challenge to its rule since student-led rallies in 1988 were brutally repressed with the loss of hundreds if not thousands of lives.

30,000 monks, 70,000 supporters

On Tuesday, about 30,000 monks in saffron and red robes and 70,000 supporters set out from the gilded Shwedagon Pagoda, Myanmar's holiest shrine - marking the second straight day the protests had drawn 100,000 people.

Thousands linked hands to form a human chain around the monks, who prayed and chanted as they swarmed around city hall and the Sule Pagoda, while many more bystanders clapped and cheered from the sidewalks in the blistering sun.

'National reconciliation is very important for us. People and monks are gathering here, and the monks are standing up for the people,' famed poet Aung Way said in a speech to the crowd.
Some of the monks chanted 'We want dialogue' or carried banners reading: 'May people's desires be fulfilled'. Large contingents of students joined the march, carrying the red flags emblazoned with yellow peacocks that symbolise the National League for Democracy (NLD) of detained Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Demonstrators paused outside the United Nations office, where the monks called for the democracy icon to be freed from house arrest.

The NLD joined calls for a non-violent resolution to the crisis, saying: 'The only way is through peaceful dialogue'. -- AFP, AP

Source: http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest+News/Asia/STIStory_161506.html

in the news...

More than 100,000 protest in Myanmar

More than 100,000 people flooded the streets of Myanmar's biggest city Monday, joining Buddhist monks in the strongest show of dissent against the ruling generals in nearly two decades.

The enormous show of strength drew a swift rebuke from the military government which threatened to "take action" against the monks, even as world leaders and the UN secretary general urged the junta to show restraint.

Two major marches snaked their way through Yangon, the nation's commercial capital, both led by robed monks chanting prayers of peace, witnesses said.
Some marched through the rain under a banner reading: "This is a peaceful mass movement." Others had tears in their eyes.

The protests lasted nearly five hours, ending with prayers at pagodas before the crowds returned to their homes.

Political dissidents based in Thailand said major protests also took place in Myanmar's second city of Mandalay, the western oil town of Sittwe, and the religious centre of Pakokku, but the reports were difficult to confirm.

In the first official reaction to a week of escalating protests led by the monks, state media reported that the country's religion minister, Brigadier General Thura Myint Maung, had issued a warning to senior clergy.

"If the monks go against the rules and regulations in the authority of the Buddhist teachings, we will take action under the existing law," state television quoted the minister as saying.

The threat came as the international community urged restraint on the eve of the opening of the UN General Assembly in New York, where world leaders are expected to push the generals to adopt democratic reforms.

"We are consulting with allies and friends in the regions on ways to encourage dialogue between the regime and those seeking freedom," said US national security spokesman Gordon Johndroe.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon "calls upon the Myanmar authorities to continue to exercise restraint," said a statement issued by his spokeswoman Michele Montas.

Germany and France added their voices to the chorus, with the foreign ministry in Paris warning that the junta would be held accountable for any harsh crackdowns.

Closer to home, Malaysian lawmakers urged the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to use its influence to push bloc member Myanmar to reform.

Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, offered his support and urged the generals to refrain from violence, in a message released by his office.

"As a Buddhist monk, I am appealing to the members of the military regime who believe in Buddhism to act in accordance with the sacred dharma in the spirit of compassion and non-violence," he said.

The generals have normally been tough on dissent, and their 1988 crackdown left hundreds -- if not thousands -- dead.

But Monday's rally was the latest in a series of growing anti-junta demonstrations that began in mid-August when a massive fuel price hike triggered public anger.

The monks and supporters set off from holy Shwedagon Pagoda and walked past the offices of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), which won elections in 1990 but was never allowed to govern.

NLD officials came out to join the marchers, many of whom fixed small strips of the coloured cloth of the monks' robes onto their own shirts, in a procession that quickly swelled to more than 30,000 people.

"We are marching for the people," one monk told the crowd.

A second march estimated at up to 100,000 people headed north of the city, passing a now-shuttered university campus that was the scene of the 1988 uprising.

It appeared to stretch for as long as a kilometre, blocking traffic on one of the city's major thoroughfares.

The British ambassador in Yangon, Mark Canning, said the country's leaders were now in uncharted territory and doubted that the protests would fizzle out.

"You could see a sharp reaction from the government, which is more likely," he told AFP.
"The obvious way out of this is to sit down with the various elements that are involved in all this and try and reach some sort of common ground."

Analysts believe the junta has thus far held back because any violence against the monks in this devoutly Buddhist nation would spark a huge outcry.

In a surprise move on Saturday, armed police allowed about 2,000 monks and civilians to pray outside the home of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, long the face of resistance to the generals, who have ruled here since 1962.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate stepped outside the lakeside home where she has been under house arrest for more than a decade and greeted the crowd, but riot police have blocked the road since Sunday.

State television said that Saturday's rally outside her home had "complicated" the situation.
Prominent democracy activists initially led the rallies but the generals arrested more than 200 people, according to human rights groups.

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Honestly, I don't know whether I agree with what the Buddhist monks in Myanmar are doing. And I don't know how to pray for them. Do I pray against the protests? Do I pray for the protest? Do I pray for the monks? Do I pray for the government?

On one hand, I'm glad for the protesters because the people have been oppressed by the militant government for such a long them and I'm totally rooting for Aung San Suu Kyi. On the other hand, although the monks say that it's a peaceful protest, protests aren't meant to be peaceful, right? Oh man, I sound like a bimbo. But isn't it true?

Peaceful Protests

Amiable Arguments

OXYMORONS!

It saddens me to see this happening in the country I have learnt to love. Peace being disrupted. But I also see this as a breakthrough. A new hope for the people of Myanmar. A new life. Freedom.

God, I pray You'll reveal to me Your heart for Myanmar. Teach me how to intercede for the people there. I pray that as these protests are going on, You'll keep my Joey, Terence, Teacher Carlos and family and the gang at Victory Christian Fellowship safe. In Jesus' Name, Amen.