Myanmar’s influential Buddhist monks’ association has urged the country’s military junta to end violence against protesters, accusing an “armed minority” of responsibility for the killing of unarmed civilians protesting the February 1 coup.
According to a report in the local news outlet Myanmar now, the 47-member State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee, a government-appointed body of Buddhist abbots, decided Tuesday to suspend its activities, calling for an immediate end to the junta’s violent attacks on anti-coup protesters
In the draft five-point statement, the committee – usually known by its Burmese language acronym Mahana – called on the authorities to end the arrest, torture and killing of unarmed civilians and to prevent the looting and destruction of people’s property. The abbots also urged a resolution to the crisis through dialogue in accordance with the Buddhist principle of metta, or loving kindness.
“It is similar to the CDM,” one Buddhist abbot who sits on the committee told Myanmar Now, referring to the Civil Disobedience Movement that is leading opposition to the military junta.
The abbot said that the committee’s decision would be submitted to the Union Minister for Religious Affairs and Culture today, after which the group might decide to amend its statement. The main issue that remains to be sorted is whether examinations for novice monks should continue to go ahead.
The decision by Mahana came as demonstrations continued across Myanmar, with police continuing to use a number of violent means, including live ammunition, in a bid to disperse protesters.
The total number of people killed in the weeks of unrest since the coup now stands at 217, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which emphasizes that “the actual number of casualties is likely much higher.” The group notes that a total of 2,191 people have been arrested, charged or sentenced since the military’s seizure of power.
Were Mahana to throw in its lot with the CDM, it would represent a significant boost for the anti-coup movement.
Buddhist monks have a history of political activism in Myanmar, leading revolts against British imperialism and playing an important role in the formation of Burmese nationalism. Monks were at the forefront of the protests against military rule that erupted in 2007, later dubbed the “Saffron Revolution.” Nationalist members of the monkhood also played a central role in the demonization of the Muslim Rohingya, and the defense of the military for its vicious treatment of the minority community.
Given the moral prestige of the Buddhist monkhood, Mahana’s support for the anti-coup protest movement would give an important boost for opponents of coup leader Min Aung Hlaing and undermine his junta’s already shaky legitimacy.
Richard Horsey, an analyst for the International Crisis Group (ICG), described Mahana’s decision as “a hugely significant move.” The group is “highly conservative and extremely cautious,” he wrote on Twitter. “For it to break so clearly with the regime –which imagines itself protector of Buddhism – will galvanize monastic opposition.”
If it eventuates, Mahana’s break with the junta would be just the latest sign that the political struggle in Myanmar is unlikely to end any time soon. Having set a course that has put it at odds with the majority of country’s people, the junta’s road to “disciplined” democracy will be spattered with their blood.