Protests Take Generals By Surprise
news from : http://news.sky.comBurma's generals are expected to hold crisis meetings this week to decide how to react to the biggest anti-government protests since they ruthlessly crushed a mass uprising in 1988.
The demonstration shows no sign of abating, the monks are on the march - in their tens of thousands - and they have done this for seven days running now.
One observer estimated as many as 100,000 shaven-headed religious devotees all dressed in identical red habits swamped the streets of the capital.
In a nation where even the name demonstrates bias (the military junta renamed the country Myanmar but it is still recognised as Burma by Britain and Australia for instance), the outpouring of peaceful defiance appears to have taken the military authorities by surprise.
They appeared to be at a loss when the monks marched past the Opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi's home over the weekend.
The diminutive pro-democracy campaigner who has been under house arrest or in jail for most of the past 17 years, briefly came outside to greet the protesters and in so doing gave a huge boost to the demonstration.
The military quickly realised their tactical mistake and the barbed wire at the end of Ms Kyi's road were soon back in place.
But each day the pro-democracy numbers have swelled. What first began as a relatively small protest against rising cooking gas prices (they soared 500%) has quickly become a nationwide demand for regime-change - with demonstrations too in the country's second city, Mandalay.
The military junta which has ruled the country since the Sixties is feared and hated in equal measure. The Government controls everything and dissent is usually met with force.
The people marching now know that - and that's what makes their public demonstration all the more astonishing.
In any country the sight of tens of thousands of chanting monks taking to the streets would be remarkable.
But in Burma, the last time any protest of this size was witnessed, it was met with bloody force which left thousands dead - including monks.
At the moment, they have been peaceful protests but the images show a growing confidence among a people who have been quiet for a long long time.
They seem to sense the time for change could be now.
The US Secretary Of State Condoleeza Rice has said the Bush Government is 'watching very carefully' the democracy demonstrations.
But many believe the international community has been woeful in its attempts to help the Burmese and now is the time to turn the screws on the military junta and demand change.
