G-20 Summit: Burmese monks pray for human rights

Burmese monks pray for human rights
Friday, September 25, 2009
By Ann Rodgers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Photo Credit: Darrell Sapp/Post-Gazette

Buddhist monks robed in hues of saffron, cinnamon and curry led 80 supporters across the Roberto Clemente Bridge toward the G-20 summit, chanting the same prayer for loving kindness with which they led an uprising for human rights in Myanmar two years ago.

A 25-year-old Burmese monk among them was an organizer of that "saffron revolution," in which hundreds of monks died. He fled Myanmar for his life.

Of 15 monks on the organizing committee, he knows the whereabouts of four others, all in exile. Monks searched jails for the others "but we didn't see their faces," said the Rev. Kovinda. Burmese have only one name, though it can have several words.

Monks and other Burmese exiles from as far as San Francisco came here for the G-20. "The world leaders have a responsibility to Burma," said the Venerable Ashin Nayaka, who now teaches at Columbia University. The monks do not call their land Myanmar because they don't recognize the authority of the military junta that seized control in 1962 and changed the name.

They approve of the Bush administration's policy of heavy sanctions and a travel ban on Myanmar. They are worried that the Obama administration may change that. They also want to keep up pressure to free Aung San Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel peace laureate who has lived under house arrest for most of the past 20 years.

"She stands for the suffering people of Burma, she is the symbol of freedom and of defiance of the military," the Venerable Ashin Nayaka said. "We want America to help us to change Burma."

The monks described a 60-year civil war that has used child soldiers on both sides and forced 2 million people to flee. More than 3,000 villages have been destroyed, and thousands of people have been sent to forced labor camps. The common people live in poverty while the nation's abundant resources go to the military, the monks said.

"Buddhists believe that life is suffering, but suffering under dictatorship is not natural. It should be removed through the power of non-violence," the Venerable Ashin Nayaka said.

After government forces killed a monk who protested a quintupling of fuel prices in August 2007, 70,000 monks marched through Rangoon beginning Sept. 18. "We didn't come to ask for power, but to change the minds and hearts of the generals through loving kindness and compassion," said the Venerable Ashin Nayaka.

After a week of peaceful protests, the Rev. Kovinda went at dawn to visit a large monastery and found it nearly deserted. An elderly monk told him that 200 soldiers took away 300 monks in the night. In all, 62 monasteries were raided. Some monks escaped; many were sent to forced labor camps. Western news organizations reported that the bodies of hundreds of slain monks were found in the jungle. Thousands of monks are missing. Human Rights Watch has reported that about 240 monks are serving harsh prison sentences.

One sign that marchers carried yesterday was covered with their photos. "May all monks and nuns in Burmese prisons be free. May all beings be free," it said.