Burma protests are biggest for 20 years

Tens of thousands of monks and civilians have marched through Yangon in the biggest demonstration against Burma's ruling generals for 20 years.

On the sixth day of marches in the country, five columns of maroon-robed monks, one stretching for more than half a mile, marched from the devoutly Buddhist nation's holiest shrine, the Shwedagon Pagoda, to the city centre.

"People locked arms around the monks. They were clapping and cheering," the witness said. Some of the protesters carried placards calling for "National Reconciliation" and the "Release of Political Prisoners".

The protests began as civilian anger over last month's shock fuel price rises, but it is now become a more deep-rooted religious movement against the generals.

Protests were also reported in Mandalay, where 10,000 monks marched on Saturday, in the northwestern city of Sittwe and in Bago, just north of Yangon.

The marchers included members of parliament elected in 1990 from the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) for the first time. On Saturday, detained NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi gave her support to the monks.

Burmese celebrities have also added their voice to calls for ordinary people to join the protests.

They have formed a Sangkha Support Committee and pledged to provide the monks with whatever assistance they need. They include Tun Eindra Bo - Burma's equivalent of Angelina Jolie.

One Burmese exile said: "The fact these celebrities are joining in is very significant. The committee said they will move on with the struggle until the end."

A Yangon-based diplomat said: "There's no prospect now of the monks just deciding to abandon this.

"They are getting braver every day and their demands are getting greater every day, and it's much more overtly political. It's now about Aung San Suu Kyi, it's about reform.

"The monks have got numbers, and if not immunity, then certainly it's much more difficult for the government to crack down on them than ordinary civilians."

Burma's generals are expected to hold crisis meetings this week in their new jungle capital to decide how to react.

There are fears of a repeat of 1988, when the military crushed the last democracy uprising and around 3,000 people were killed.

The military can either come down hard on the Buddhist monks leading the protests, but this risks turning pockets of dissent into nationwide outrage as reports of monks being beaten up are leaked out.

Or they can give them a free rein to march round a few cities and towns and risk the movement spreading across the country.

At present, analysts say the junta's strategy appears to be softly-softly - citing Saturday's stunning decision to let 500 monks through barbed-wire barricades outside the house of detained opposition leader and democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

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