| Quick! Name me another kind of junta other than military. Go on... |
YANGON, Myanmar - About 20,000 people led by Buddhist monks demonstrated against MyanmarÂ’s military junta Sunday, in what has quickly become the countryÂ’s largest anti-government demonstrations since the failed democratic uprising in 1988.Some 10,000 monks marched from the famous Shwedagon Pagoda in MyanmarÂ’s biggest city, Yangon, to the nearby Sule Pagoda before passing the US Embassy, witnesses said. The monks shouted support for detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, while a crowd of about 10,000 people protected them by forming a human chain along the route.
It was the sixth straight day monks have marched in Yangon, and came a day after they were allowed to walk past Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Suu KyiÂ’s compound in a symbolic gesture of support. Their defiant activities have given new life to a protest movement that began a month ago after the government raised fuel prices.
A monk gave a speech Sunday calling for Suu KyiÂ’s release and national reconciliation before the monks set off from the Shwedagon Pagoda, the witness said. The protest was the largest in the latest series to erupt in Yangon.