100,000 protesters marched down the streets of Rangoon today to push for democracy!
The locals are surrounding the protesting Buddhist monks locking arms to protect them from being attacked by the junta thugs.
People march in protest in Yangon. More than 100,000 people flooded the streets of Myanmar’s biggest city, joining Buddhist monks in the strongest show of dissent against the ruling generals in nearly two decades.(AFP)
Buddhists monks march down the street in Yangon, 23 September 2007. Tens of thousands of people flooded onto the streets of Myanmar’s main city to join protesting monks in the strongest show of dissent against the ruling generals in nearly two decades.(AFP)
A massive protest was held today in Rangoon against the ruling junta. Tens of thousands joined in with thousands of monks who have been leading the growing protests against the brutal military rulers in control of the nation.
The BBC reported:
Tens of thousands of people have marched through Burma’s main city of Rangoon in the biggest of a mounting wave of anti-government protests.
Eyewitnesses said the number of monks and civilians demonstrating was more than 30,000, with some activists saying 100,000 were involved.Some monks carried placards calling for better living conditions and national reconciliation, witnesses said.
The military government has so far showed restraint against the protests.
Monks are highly revered in Burma and any action against them would spark an outcry.
But there are fears of a repeat of 1988, when the last democracy uprising was crushed by the military and some 3,000 people were killed, correspondents say.
Five columns of monks, one reportedly stretching for more than 1km (0.6 miles), entered the city centre to cheers and applause from thousands of bystanders.
“People locked arms around the monks. They were clapping and cheering,” one witness told Reuters news agency.
Many of the civilians who joined in pinned small pieces of the monks’ robes onto their clothing; some were in tears.
Graphic fact file on the anti-government protests in Myanmar spearheaded by Buddhist monks. Tens of thousands of people flooded onto the streets of Myanmar’s main city to join protesting monks in the strongest show of dissent against the ruling generals in nearly two decades.(AFP/Martin Megino)
Democratic Voice of Burma continues to have the best coverage of the protests:
The thousands of monks were joined by civilians today in the Rangoon rain. (DVB)
Civilians cheered on the monks along the protest route. (DVB)
Myanmar Buddhist monks walk on the street during a protest against the military government in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second largest city Monday, Sept. 24, 2007. As many as 100,000 anti-government protesters led by a phalanx of Buddhist monks marched Monday through Yangon, the largest crowd to demonstrate in Myanmar’s biggest city since a 1988 pro-democracy uprising that was brutally crushed by the military. (AP Photo)
Republican Senator Mitch McConnell put out a statement today in support of the democracy activists in Burma.
Previously:
In Rare Protest- Myanmar Democracy Activists Get Beatdown
1,000 Burmese Monks Protest Junta Abuse– Get Beatdown!
Burma’s Monks March On– Meet With Aung San Suu Kyi -Update: With Photo
20,000 Protest Military Junta in Burma!
