400, 000 MONKS PROTEST IN BURMA DEFYING MILITARY BAN, GUESS THE U.S.A WONT HELP THERES NO OIL!

Rangoon - Tens of thousands of monks on Tuesday defied a military ban and warnings of reprisals in sixth day of barefoot marches in the streets of Rangoon.
Troops involved in the 1988 massacre of pro-democracy protesters and anti-riot police moved into Rangoon, and a showdown appeared inevitable.
The monks' marches, defying the order of the Burmese clergy which is controlled by the military dictatorship, have rocked Rangoon for more than a week.
The monks, arriving in small groups in buses and cars, first congregated at the Shwedagon Pagoda before starting to march to Sule at 2pm where they flooded the traffic circle around the downtown pagoda, a flashpoint for past protests and crackdowns.
The demonstration, exceeding 50,000 monks and laymen, was in open defiance of a government order to end their daily marches that started a week ago Tuesday, and escalated Monday with up to 100,000 marchers in Rangoon and other cities.
On Monday night, Brigadier-General Thura Myint Maung, the minister of religion, issued a televised warning to all monks to obey Buddhist rules that prohibit the clergy from engaging in political activities.
Trucks with loudspeakers prowled Rangoon's downtown area Tuesday morning warning that anyone caught watching the marchers will be liable to three years in jail and anyone who participates in the marches faces 10 years imprisonment.
Some monks have tried to depoliticize their protest, carrying placards that read, "Loving Kindness Wins All," and "Untruth will be overcome by Truth," but many laymen joining the rally were less discrete.
"The people's desire must be fulfilled," was a common cry. On Tuesday, for the first time, some protestors unfurled the Fighting Peacock flag, a symbol associated with the 1988 uprising. Others carried pictures of Aung San, Burma's independence hero and the father of Aung San Suu Kyi, the nation's democracy heroine.
Suu Kyi has been under house arrest since May, 2003. A confrontation seems inevitable, foreign observers said.
Representatives of the government-controlled Buddhist clergy organization, the Sangha Nayaka Committee, met with abbots of Rangoon Buddhist temples Tuesday morning and instructed them to prevent all monks from marching and to send visiting student monks back to the provinces.
"They told us to prevent a repeat of 1988," said an abbot of a temple in Rangoon's Yankin township.
In 1988, Burma was rocked by nationwide demonstrations against the military regime's incompetent rule, which had dragged the country down from one of the wealthiest in Asia prior to World War II to an economic basket case by 1987.
Economic hardships are partly behind the recent protests.
Without warning or consultations, the government more than doubled fuel prices on August 15, exacerbating the plight of the impoverished Burmese people overnight. The country has been suffering from double-digit inflation since 2006.
"What right do the military have to tell us not to protest?" said the Yankin temple abbot. "The monks belong to the laymen, so if the (Burmese) people are poor, the monks are poor, too."
Anti-inflation protests started building in Rangoon on August 19, led by former student activists and opposition politicians. Earlier this month, the movement was taken up by the monkhood.
The 400,000-strong monkhood has a long history of political activism in Burma, having played a pivotal role in the independence struggle against Great Britain in 1947 and the anti-military demonstrations of 1988, which ended in bloodshed.
Observers have been amazed that the military rulers have waited so long to suppress the monks' rebellion and attribute it to the influence of China on the pariah state.
"I can see no other explantion for their restraint," one European diplomat said. "They've shot monks in the past."
China is one of the few countries allied with Burma's military junta, having used its veto to prevent the United Nations Security Council from further pressuring the regime last year.
"China always adopts a policy of non-interference in other countries' internal affairs," foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said in Beijing when asked about the protests.
"We hope and believe that the Myanmar government and people will properly handle the current issues," she said, using the regime's name for the country. (dpa)
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Earlier report:
Monks fear crackdown
Rangoon - A military ban on the monk-led protests that have rocked the former capital of Burma for a week persuaded thousands of Buddhist clergy to remain in their temples Tuesday morning, but a hardcore group marched to the iconic Shwedagon Pagoda.
About 100 monks arrived at the famed pagoda about noon in open defiance of a government order Monday night to abide by Buddhist "rules and regulations."
The order, which was repeated by state media Tuesday morning, has signalled that the Burmese junta is ready to crack down on the monks' barefoot rebellion, which climaxed Monday with up to 100,000 marchers in Rangoon and other cities.
On Monday night, Brigadier-General Thura Myint Maung, the minister of religion, issued a televised warning to all monks to obey Buddhist rules that prohibit the clergy from engaging in political activities.
The military-controlled Buddhist clergy, the Sangha Nayaka Committee, met with abbots of Rangoon Buddhist temples Tuesday morning and instructed them to prevent all monks from marching and to send visiting student monks back to the provinces.
"They told us to prevent a repeat of 1988," said an abbot of a temple in Rangoon's Yankin township.
In 1988, Burma was rocked by nationwide demonstrations against the military regime's incompetent rule, which had dragged the country down from one of the wealthiest in Asia prior to World War II to an economic basket case by 1987.
Economic hardships are partly behind the recent protests.
Without warning or consultations, the government more than doubled fuel prices on August 15, exacerbating the plight of the impoverished Burmese people overnight. The country has been suffering from double-digit inflation since 2006.
"What right do the military have to tell us not to protest?" said the Yankin temple abbot. "The monks belong to the laymen, so if the (Burmese) people are poor, the monks are poor, too."
Anti-inflation protests first started in Rangoon on August 19, led by former student activists and opposition politicians. Earlier this month, the movement was taken up by the monkhood.
The nation's 400,000-strong monkhood has a long history of political activism in Burma, having played a pivotal role in the independence struggle against Great Britain in 1947 and the anti-military demonstrations of 1988, which ended in bloodshed.
Observers have been amazed that Burma's military rulers have waited so long to suppress the monks' rebellion and attribute it to the influence of China on the pariah state.
"I can see no other explantion for their restraint," one European diplomat said. "They've shot monks in the past."
China is one of the few countries allied with Burma's military junta, having used its veto to prevent the United Nations Security Council from further pressuring the regime last year.

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