Firstly, the monks were very afraid to join our group. Because they are very afraid, and they think, “Okay, when we join your library, your group. The SPDC [State Peace and Development Council, official title for the Burmese military regime] sends us to the jail?”
So at that time, they are very, very afraid. But I explained more and more, and I organized more and more. At that time they were very interested, and I gave political books to them. And then the Pakkoku situation – over 500 monks peace walked on the street. At that time the SPDC tortured, beat the monks a lot.
And then – so we discussed about it, how to do. Now, Pakkoku situation case is our case also, yeah? Because now the military regime beat and tortured a lot. So at that time I wrote in a statement to apologize [about] that case. So at that time a lot of monks are knowing about it. “Okay, we do, we participate; if they don’t apologize, we will participate.” So we gave a date, the 11th of September.
But they never apologized. So some informers followed me. They are watching me. Because they know I opened a library and I do a lot in Mandalay. So at the time they are watching me. And then we discussed, okay we need to give a day more. So at the time we gave in our statement, 17th – the last day is the 17th of September. But the military regime, the SPDC never apologized for that case. So we start, 18th of September 2007, we are reciting boycott letter, Buddha’s teachings. So at the time we recorded, and we sent to the BBC [British Broadcasting Corporation] and the VOA [Voice of America] and the RFA [Radio Free Asia]. At the time they thought, okay, now in Yangon, we start to boycott and peace walk.
So on the 18th, 19th, 20th, we peace walk.At that time a lot of people join more and more. A lot of people joined our movement. And on the 25th day, I got some information that they would shoot our monks. So at that time some leaders discussed with me how to do, what to do. They can shoot and they can beat, [on the] 26th day. But we said, “Okay, even though they shoot or not, it doesn’t matter. We need to peace walk. So on the 26th day we also peace walked.
One group is near the Shwedagon Pagoda. And then they shoot and they beat and they tortured. And I went to that place. But I could not go into that place because it was blocked. And police and soldiers, a lot, blocked. So I wanted to take their photos, but I can’t. Then later we cannot move more. They blocked, blocked every way, so we cannot walk. At the time our leaders discussed with the senior ana [authority].“Okay, we cannot allow more. We need to obey our senior ana’s orders.” So they only gave 10 minutes. “If you don’t go back to your monastery, we will shoot you,” they announced loudspeaker. And they were always talking like that. So at the time we cannot walk more.
We had to go back to our monastery. At night they entered the monastery and they beat and they tortured and they shoot and then they sent some to the jail. On the 26th night, 27th night also, they entered to the monastery. And the 27th, 28th, also the students and a few monks are walking on the street, peace walking. Also they shoot and beat and torture. They caught a lot of students, a lot of monks. Threw them into the jail. And then, 28th evening, one of my brothers came to the monastery. My brother told me, “Okay, our mother’s message to you: ‘You need to move to another place. You need to hide in this time. Because which monastery they will enter or not, you don’t know. If they enter your monastery, you can be arrested – at that time you cannot work more. You need to hide in this time.’” So at that time I’m thinking okay, I decided to hide.
Venerable Ashin Issariya (“King Zero”) is a Buddhist monk from Burma. In 2007 he was a principal organizer of the nationwide protests that became known as the “Saffron Revolution.”
After the Burmese military regime used violence to break up a peaceful march by monks who were calling attention to poverty and starvation in the town of Pakkoku, Ashin Issariya and other monks organized nationwide protests against the violence. Over 100,000 monks and tens of thousands of ordinary citizens demonstrated in Rangoon, Mandalay, and other places throughout the country, often chanting Buddha’s teachings on “loving kindness”. The government responded with more violence, killing dozens of monks and other protestors and inflicting serious injuries on hundreds more.
Ashin Issariya became widely known in Burma and around the world under the name “King Zero”— which, as he explained in his Freedom Collection interview, meant that Burma should have no kings and no dictators. But it took the government some time to uncover his real identity, so he was able to spend several months assisting victims of Cyclone Nargis before fleeing to Thailand in 2008. He now lives in a monastery near the Thai-Burma border and remains in close touch with democracy advocates inside and outside Burma.
Burma, a Southeast Asian country with about 57 million people, is ruled by a military regime that seized power in 1962. Although the reformist National League for Democracy (NLD) won overwhelmingly in a 1990 election, the country’s military rulers ignored the results and arrested NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 “for her nonviolent struggle for democracy and human rights.” The military government held a referendum on a new constitution in 2008 and a parliamentary election in 2010, neither of which was regarded by international observers as free or fair, and both of which resulted in overwhelming majorities for pro-government positions and candidates. The military regime has committed widespread and systematic human rights violations, including extrajudicial killing, torture, rape, and denial of freedom of expression, association, assembly, and religion.
Throughout its existence, the regime has been at war with a number of Burma’s ethnic minority groups. Ethnic minority voters overwhelmingly supported the NLD in the 1990 election, and after the suppression of the democracy movement several of these groups continued or resumed armed resistance to the de facto government. Although the government signed cease-fire agreements with several of these groups ostensibly granting them autonomy within their respective regions, the Burmese military has used a range of brutal techniques, including the killing of civilians, forced labor, rape, and the destruction of homes, crops, and villages, in cease-fire zones as well as in areas where there is still armed resistance.
In 2007, as on several previous occasions, there were mass demonstrations throughout the country demanding freedom and democracy. The 2007 demonstrations were led by Buddhist monks and eventually became known as the “Saffron Revolution” after the color of the monks’ robes. The armed forces brutally suppressed these demonstrations—estimates of the number of protestors killed range from 31 to several thousand—and intensified popular dissatisfaction with the government by the killing, beating, and public humiliation of monks.
The nominally civilian government resulting from the 2010 election has been widely regarded as a façade for continuing military rule. However, in October 2011, the government released 206 of Burma’s estimated 2,000 prisoners of conscience. The next month, the government announced that it would soon release all remaining political prisoners. The NLD, which had declined to participate in the 2010 election, registered to participate in the next election and announced that Aung San Suu Kyi would be among the NLD candidates.
Although the military regime announced in 1989 that it had changed the English name of the country from Burma to “Myanmar,” the United States government and other international supporters of democracy in Burma have generally continued to call the country Burma because this is the name preferred by Aung San Suu Kyi and other democracy advocates who won the 1990 election.
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