Since 2003 I made 5 trips to Burma/Myanmar, and spend a lot of time travelling up and down the Irrawaddy River, covering in various short and long stages all from Rangoon/Yangon to Bhamo in the north, and a good portion of the Chindwin, the main Ir...
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September 2007 demonstrations in Rangoon
I arrived in Rangoon early in the morning of September 26 from Bangkok. After checking into the Motherland Hotel I walked to Shwe Dagon, about an hour away, side-tracking to Sule Pagoda on the way.
Just as I arrived at Shwe Dagon, a group of 50 or so monks marched by the south entrance, singing and shouting slogans, and carrying the Buddhist flag. Soldiers inside the pagoda immediately locked and baricaded the gates, and extensive heavily armed guards were posted, and I could not get in. The monks kept on going, to the monastery at the east gate.
I walked to that gate, which was also locked, and groups of soldiers were standing around, their guns somewhat casually slung over the shoulder, with Burmese men, women and children watching them.
Then people started moving into a small side street that leads to the monastery at the east gate, and with much commotion the crowd, several hundred people, surged in, then backed off. There were rifle shots (maybe six or eight) and people ran back up the hill; several had been beaten by the soldiers, and there were reports of someone killed. A young monk, from the group I had earlier seen marching past Shwe Dagon, severely beaten, was carried up by two men and the crowd went wild... they surged back towards the gate where the soldiers were but, wisely kept their distance.
A group of soldiers invaded the small monastery above the east gate and tried to beat up and arrest the monks, who fled over the walls. Many did not make it, many who did were cut and bruised.
The soldiers moved up their positions with true military precision, up the alley and the road from the east gate towards the west, emplacing barricades and guards as they went, until they had secured the whole road and all the alleys and side roads up to the big intersection at the south gate.
I watched for a while with a small crowd from the porch at the decrepid Shwe Dagon Hotel, but not much was happening once the soldiers had settled into their positions.
I walked down to Thein Gyi market on Bogyoke Ang San Street for a coffee. Suddenly commotion: the merchants start packing up and lock their shops; the coffee boys gather the little stools and the tea pots, bundle up the tables and make ready to flee. They keep looking at me where I sit, in dumb ignorance, sipping my coffee. They tell me to go as the gates to the market are drawn shut.
At Sule pagoda, a few blocks away, there is a huge crowd, and the mood is ugly. All the roads are closed off and a herd of soldiers blocks Sula, guns at the ready. By stages they get closer to the intersection of Anawratha Street and Pagoda Roads while the crowd thickens.
Demonstration leaders ask us to sit down and we squat on the pavement- only the monks remain standing, their numbers also growing with new arrivals, to much applause and chanting and singing. When I somewhat boldy take some pictures (the soldiers now are not far away, and I seem to be the only foreigner there) there is applause for my support. I am moved to tears.
