Saffron Revolution

Where are the monks & nuns now?

From Margaret Howe, Clear View Project:

On the 4th Anniversary of the Saffron Revolution, we want to give you an update on the conditions of the monks and nuns who have been imprisoned in Burma.

The good news is that all of the nuns who were jailed after the Saffron Revolution have been released. At this moment, there are no nuns in the Burmese prisons. We can celebrate that they are no longer living in horrific conditions and being subjected to torture and deprivation.

Unfortunately, the Burmese regime is pressuring the monasteries to not take the women back so they are effectively banned from re-entering the nunhood. These women who have devoted their lives to the monastic lives have to fend for themselves or find a lay sponsor to support them. The released monks are in similar straights, with one report showing a released monk begging and sleeping in a train station.

AAPP, an organization on the Thai/Burma border reports that released monks are usually under surveillance, suffer from social exclusion, not allowed to become monks again without the approval of Ministry of Religion, and even though their old monasteries want to welcome them back, monasteries are under pressure by the authorities to not accept them.

There still remain approximately 225 monks in prison and 2000 political prisoners.

While recent reports indicate a potential new political openness in the quasi civilian regime, it seems a good moment to increase our activity for the release of the political prisoners. Updates from Burma show that
  • Aung San Suu Kyi has met with the new President Thein Sein for the first time;
  • Burma’s foreign minister told the UN General Assembly that an amnesty for prisoners is in the cards, but gave no date for a possible release;
  • The government has removed the block on foreign-based news websites such as BBC, VOA, RFA, the Bangkok Post and DVB (Democratic Voice of Burma);
  • In Burma, small but peaceful protests to mark the 4th Anniversary of the 2007 Saffron Revolution were not met with violent crackdown.
We attach four letters for you and or your sanghas or groups to write to officials. Hearing voices from the International Community may help increase the speed in which reforms can take place. However, as Aung San Suu Kyi said recently, we need to keep track of what is happening in Burma and not take our eyes from her country. The positive changes that are promised may change in the flash of a moment.

Feel free to use the addresses and write your own letters.

Thanks for all your care and concern for the Burmese people. They continue to need our support.

May all beings live in freedom and peace.

Image Credit: Jan van Raay from Portland, Oregon, USA [CC-BY-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons