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YANGON - Buddhist monks took to the streets in their thousands Saturday in Myanmar in an escalating trial of strength that has left the military government facing its most prolonged challenge in nearly two decades.
Nearly 2,000 marched and prayed in the rain in the main city of Yangon, and a similar rally in the nation's second city Mandalay drew more than half that figure, witnesses said.
The monks -- who are deeply respected in devoutly Buddhist Myanmar -- have become the effective standard-bearers for a protest movement that broke out a month ago following a massive price hike and has since spread nationwide.
Earlier Saturday a Buddhist group claiming to be helping drive the protests called for nationwide prayer vigils to turn up the heat on the government.
"We ask every citizen to join our vigils," said a purported spokesman from The Alliance of All Burmese Buddhist Monks, an underground Buddhist group.
He was speaking by telephone from Myanmar and declined to give his name.
The vigils will start from Sunday for three days, and the group urged the public to stand outside their houses for 15-minute prayers from eight o'clock each night, the spokesman said.
"We want peace in Burma," he said, using Myanmar's former name.
Few details are known about the underground group, but analysts say it is mainly made up of young monks.
The mounting turmoil has raised concern in the international community and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband has pledged to bring up the issue at the UN General Assembly in New York next week.
The march in Mandalay, which is an important centre for Buddhist learning, lasted throughout the morning and ended peacefully.
In Yangon, the cinnamon-robed clergy prayed in the rain at the Shwedagon Pagoda, the country's most important landmark.
Carrying religious flags and chanting Buddhist prayers, they then marched toward the city centre. Some witnesses said they appeared to be heading toward the Chinese embassy.
Some monks have refused to accept donations from members of the military, a gesture seen as a stinging rebuke tantamount to excommunication for Buddhists who believe giving alms daily is an important religious duty.
A crowd of more than 100 onlookers clapped and smiled as they followed the march, witnesses said.
Dozens of plainclothes security officials also walked along with the crowd with video cameras, but there were no reports of violence.
A second group of monks also prayed at the pagoda.
The protests follow a series of rallies over the past week that have drawn several thousand people.
On Friday, in the biggest public display yet, at least 3,000 marched along Yangon's flooded streets, defying driving rain to chant prayers calling for peace and security.
The ruling military normally does not tolerate the slightest show of public dissent, and authorities during the past month have arrested over 150 people, including prominent pro-democracy activists.
They include Min Ko Naing, considered Myanmar's most prominent opposition leader after detained democracy icon and Nobel peace winner Aung San Suu Kyi, 62.
Police so far have made no effort to stop the monks in Yangon over the past week, as the government is worried that a violent crackdown on monks could trigger public outrage, analysts have said.
But the government said in a rare admission Wednesday that it used tear gas and fired warning shots in the air Tuesday to disperse 1,000 monks in the oil town of Sittwe, 560 kilometres (350 miles) west of Yangon.
Monks were credited with helping to rally support for a 1988 pro-democracy uprising which was crushed by the military with the deaths of hundreds, possibly thousands, of people. - AFP/ir
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