1:38 PM
Waa Haa Haa
Latest update: 19/02/2012 ...
Burmese authorities threatened action against activist monk Shin Gambira for having “repeatedly broken Buddhist monks’ code of conduct and the law”. Gambira was formerly released in a state amnesty in January for his role in Burma’s 2007 protests.
By News Wires (text) ...
The reports accused him of rejoining the religious order without
requesting authorisation after the Jan. 13 amnesty, of being in the
Magin Monastery, which has been sealed by the government, and breaking
the locks of two other monasteries.
Monks from Magin, in the eastern suburbs of the main city of
Yangon, were involved in opposition activity under the military regime
that ruled Myanmar for almost 50 years until a nominally civilian
government took over in March last year.
The civilian government, while full of former generals, has
initiated a series of political and economic reforms at a speed that has
taken the outside world by surprise, although some observers remain
sceptical of its motives.
Shin Gambira, 33, was a leader of the Alliance of All Burma
Buddhist Monks that led a peaceful protest known as the Saffron
Revolution in 2007, which the military put down with force.
The papers said the State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee (SSMNC), the
highest level of a state-sponsored Buddhist monks’ organisation, had
summoned Shin Gambira three times but he failed to show up, so the
police were asked to bring him in on Feb. 10.
According to the newspapers, Shin Gambira had said in a statement
to the SSMNC that he did not need permission to rejoin the order of
monks so he would not ask for it.
The United States, which has made the freeing of political
prisoners one of its conditions for easing sanctions on Myanmar imposed
when the junta was in power, had expressed concern at his brief
detention this month.
Shin Gambira was arrested in November 2007 and sentenced to 68
years in jail. He told Reuters after his release that he had been badly
treated, both physically and mentally, during his interrogation and in
jail.
In his statement to the SSMNC, Shin Gambira had also objected to
the body’s ordering another prominent monk, Shwenyawa Sayadaw, to leave
his monastery for political activities including giving a speech at the
opening of an office of the opposition National League for Democracy
party of Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
Aung Kyaw Kyaw, the elder brother of Shin Gambira, told Reuters on
Sunday they had no news of the developments reported in the state press.
“I last met him yesterday evening. I heard he had gone to have lunch with a monk friend of his this morning,” he said.
Buddhist monks have a long tradition of standing up to authorities
in the country, which is also known as Burma. They were often at the
forefront of opposition to British colonial rule, which ended in 1948.
0 comments:
Post a Comment