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YANGON: More than 1,300 Buddhist monks on Thursday marched in the rain in Yangon in their largest demonstration in the country's main city since they launched their protest movement in force this week.
Witnesses said several thousand onlookers watched the monks marching and praying in three separate rallies, in what a Western diplomat said marked an escalation of the pressure on the military-ruled government.
It was a fourth consecutive day of anti-government protests by the monks and, for the first time, onlookers outnumbered the clergy.
"Today marks definitely an escalation" of the pressure, the diplomat said.
Monks have risen to the forefront of the demonstrations which have grown into the most sustained challenge to Myanmar's military rulers in nearly two decades.
More than 600 monks prayed at Sule Pagoda in central Yangon, watched by up to 2,000 people chanting Buddhist prayers, witnesses said.
They said dozens of plainclothes officials stood guard but there were no reports of violence.
Defying heavy rains, hundreds of people, most of them university students, briefly formed a human chain at the pagoda. Police made no attempt to break up the crowd and had yet to arrest anyone.
Meanwhile, a separate group of more than 400 monks marched and prayed at Shwedagon Pagoda, Myanmar's most important landmark, but the crowd dispersed after prayers, witnesses said.
In southern Yangon, a third group of more than 350 monks marched toward a local pagoda before dispersing.
"Protests will likely continue. Monks are representing people's pent-up frustrations with the regime," an Asian diplomat in Yangon told AFP.
A series of nationwide protests began on August 19 when a massive hike in fuel prices led to a spike in transport costs.
After hundreds protested on Monday, the monks launched their movement in force on Tuesday in Yangon and other cities like central Mandalay, with more than 2,000 marching on both Tuesday and Wednesday.
Most of Thursday's demonstrators were in their early 20s and some walked barefoot.
On their way to the Shwedagon Pagoda they marched past the headquarters of the opposition National League for Democracy, headed by Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has remained under house arrest for most of the past 17 years.
Some NLD members watched the monks march past party headquarters and made Buddhist greetings to the clergy, but the two groups made no other contact.
The monks were allowed to enter the Shwedagon Pagoda for the first time in three days after authorities earlier sealed it off over security fears.
But the temple was surrounded by dozens of plainclothes security officials. At least two riot police vehicles were on standby.
Police did not intervene in the peaceful march, but dozens of plainclothes officers followed the monks with video cameras.
The military has run Myanmar since 1962 and does not usually tolerate even the slightest dissent, but analysts say the generals are cautious about stirring a public backlash if they act against the highly-respected clergy.
Monks are important cultural standard-bearers in devoutly Buddhist Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, and were credited with helping rally support for a 1988 pro-democracy uprising which was crushed by the military with the deaths of hundreds if not thousands of people.
On September 5 about 300 monks in the central city of Pakokku took to the streets, but that rally was put down by soldiers and state-backed militia who beat the crowd, enraging members of the clergy.
The crackdown on protests since the fuel price hike led US President George W. Bush to label the Myanmar government "tyrannical", and the United Nations human rights chief called for the release of all peaceful protesters.
US and European economic sanctions have been imposed for the military's human rights abuses and the detention of Aung San Suu Kyi.
But that impact has been weakened as energy-hungry neighbours like China, India and Thailand spend billions of dollars for a share of Myanmar's vast energy resources to solve their power problems. - AFP/ir
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