Midnight Monastery Raids

Kerry Howley | September 27, 2007

A friend emails this picture of a bloodied monastery floor along with a description of the tatmadaw's attacks. State media reports 9 people dead, but there is no compelling reason to trust that number. The Irrawaddy reports a monk has been killed.

Today should be the end of the "evil genius" theory of the junta's success, if there was any of that left after 2004. This response is just sloppy. Raiding monasteries and attacking members of the country's most high-status class will mobilize the Burmese in a way that shooting ordinary people would not have. A massive, violent show of force might have made sense; a targeted, limited warning attack on lay people may have made sense. Killing a monk and a Japanese expat is a sign of panic and disorder.

Comments

|9.27.07 @ 1:44PM|#

I wouldn't count on it, Ms. Howley. There's a reason that dude standing in front of a line of tanks in China was so noteworthy. FTMP, people are sheep.

highnumber|9.27.07 @ 1:46PM|#

That photo is disturbing. Keep up the reporting on Myanmar/Burma, Ms Howley. I hope the panic and disorder you perceive leads to some sort of peaceful end.

thoreau|9.27.07 @ 1:59PM|#

Good reporting, Kerry, and good luck to your friends over there.

On a different note, I wonder what Akira will have to say about a revolution led by the religious...

|9.27.07 @ 1:59PM|#

I hope the panic and disorder you perceive leads to some sort of peaceful end.

I hope it leads to the public executions of the ruling junta. Sometimes I'm not very nice.

|9.27.07 @ 2:06PM|#

people are sheep

A default rule that cannot safely be generalized to all situations. Marches of tens of thousands of people in the face of lethal force, as we've seen in the last few days in Burma, suggest that the sheep phase is nearly over.

|9.27.07 @ 2:07PM|#

A massive, violent show of force might have made sense

Yes well, I'm sure they still have that one in their play book.

|9.27.07 @ 2:14PM|#

Marches of tens of thousands of people in the face of lethal force

Not the same as marching in the face of certain death. If the junta puts that lethal force into action, and the marchers keep coming, then (and I think, only then) will we see a new day for Burma.

I hope this the end of the current regime. I hope it falls without (much) further loss of life. And most of all, I hope what replaces it, is better. You'll know peace and prosperity has at long last come to Rangoon when they get a Wal*Mart

|9.27.07 @ 2:15PM|#

Who are these Monks trying to fool?
The Junta is just maintaining the wall of seperation between Church and State.

|9.27.07 @ 2:16PM|#

Shelby, I hope you're right. I didn't mean to sound so cynical, but I've had plenty of reason to be the last few years.

Timothy|9.27.07 @ 2:16PM|#

Thoreau: I think Akira will say, "TETSUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

|9.27.07 @ 2:27PM|#

A spokesman for the monks told the international media on Thursday they are demanding the junta lower fuel prices, release Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest and begin a real dialogue with the democratic opposition leaders in the country.

For a pro-democracy movement, the lower price of gas demand seems a little odd to be in there.

Franklin Harris|9.27.07 @ 2:34PM|#

Timothy, That's Kaneda's line. Akira just sort of stands there.

|9.27.07 @ 2:36PM|#

Killing a monk and a Japanese expat is a sign of panic and disorder.

There was a lot of panic and disorder in the Chinese Communist Party before Tiannaman Square.

|9.27.07 @ 2:51PM|#

Damn. I'd really like to send the Burmese people some good weapons. By the crate load.

Timothy|9.27.07 @ 2:57PM|#

Franklin: DAMN! Well, so much for that joke.

|9.27.07 @ 3:54PM|#

Where can I get one of those cool green stools?

Timothy|9.27.07 @ 4:26PM|#

Home Despot, josh.

Nigel Watt|9.27.07 @ 4:35PM|#

Damn. I'd really like to send the Burmese people some good weapons. By the crate load.

Want to start a smuggling ring?

|9.27.07 @ 5:15PM|#

I'd be in on it, but would the monk's really use violence?

matthew hogan|9.27.07 @ 7:14PM|#

"Where can I get one of those cool green stools?"

Eat alot of a spinach-only diet.

|9.27.07 @ 9:59PM|#

I'd be in on it, but would the monk's really use violence?

Probably not. *sigh*

Andrew|9.27.07 @ 11:46PM|#

JW- The 'price of gas' request is indicative of just how poor the country really is. It has less to do with the fuel itself, and more to do with how fuel prices have raised the cost of staple items.

Chavez is a thug|9.29.07 @ 12:46AM|#

Maybe the monks in this monastery were running a private television station that had criticized the junta in some way or other. If such is indeed the case, I suspect joe will summon all his persuasive powers (as lacking as they are)to defend the generals involved. The rest of the left in this country will probably follow suit if it is discovered that universal health care is provided in Burma.