09/22/09 10:54 am
Monday, September 21st, was a special day for Mae Sot recognizing International Day of Peace. From what I’ve heard, there haven’t been many peace marches that have happened here even though a large percentage of the surrounding population has been influenced by Burma negatively. I don’t think I could say it better than postings in local papers today, so I am going to just copy and paste one that best describes what happened yesterday before giving my own personal account of it. This writing was published by democracyforburma.worldpress.com :
Monks lead International Peace Day marchSept 21, 2009 (DVB)–Around 100 people led by monks marked International Peace Day today by marching through the Thai town of Mae Sot, close to the border with Burma.
The event coincides with the two-year anniversary of the September 2007 monk-led uprising in Burma, which due to the presence of thousands of robed monks on the streets of Rangoon and elsewhere has come to be known as the Saffron Revolution.
Today’s march began with a symbolic sounding of the bell at a memorial shrine close to Mae Sot, and Buddhist monks and dignitaries from a variety of religions read prayers throughout the day.
The event, intending to symbolize cross-cultural solidarity, ended at the Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge, but protesters were met by a significant security presence.
Panithida Phongphaew of the Thai Action Committee for Democracy in Burma said that the need to support this movement is vital for a “real [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] community”.
“It is time that leaders of the world should stop saying they support peace and actually act to ensure that peace happens,” she said. For Ashin Sopaka, of the International Burmese Monks Organization, the march was also a rejection of ominous nuclear signals that have emanated from the military junta this year. “We don’t want any nuclear weapons,” he said.
A number of monks were among the estimated 138 civilians killed by police and army during the September 2007 uprising.
Monk communities in Burma have been under close surveillance in the lead-up to this year’s anniversary, with the ruling junta fearing a repeat of two years ago.
At least four monks have been arrested in recent weeks, and many more have reported intimidation. Their normally apolitical stance leant extra credence to their role in the 2007 uprising.
More than 200 monks are imprisoned in Burma, according to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP). Four were released last week in the government’s prisoner amnesty.
This covers the majority of it. Since the march didn’t take place in the exact times indicated, it took me about two hours to locate them. I decided to just meet the march where they intended to have lunch and join them there. When they arrived to the Mae Sot Park for lunch there were large vats of food waiting to feed all the hungry protesters. Everyone grabbed some rice and curry and enjoyed chatting among each other before moving on. During lunch I ran into my Burmese ex-soldier friend, from the previous post, and I was very glad to see his fear of the Thai police didn’t stop him from joining the march. Unfortunately I don’t think that was the case for everyone. Although some representatives from the Women’s League of Burma were present (a collaboration of twelve women’s organizations from Burma), I did not see anyone from my office there. One of the staff members called me to tell me she couldn’t make it because she had fallen ill, so I told her I would march on her behalf.
After lunch one of the head activist monks, Ashin Sopaka, had us sit in a circle for a five minute moment of silence to give ourselves peace and love, then to radiate this onwards to Mae Sot, Thailand, Asia then the world. After this meditation we all organized ourselves and were off to march. The march took place on the Asian highway and pretty much was a straight 6k walk to the Thai/Burma Friendship Bridge. It was a hot day, with not much forgiveness from the sun, but the energy of the people still held strong. Ashin Sopaka would chant repeatedly a mantra that translates in English to “May all beings not fight each other. May all beings be happy and peaceful.”, while another monk rang a bell. The march was not intended to stop traffic or cause too much chaos so we stayed to the side of the road attempting only to use one of the three lanes. As we walked on we kept on accumulating more and more people, which was a wonderful sight to see. About 1.5-2 hours later we reached the Friendship Bridge which, as mentioned in the above news posting, we were “greeted” by a heavy amount of Thai military. To the right hand side of the bridge, there was a row of Thai military that were about six long and five deep, not to mention the numerous Thai police that were standing on all sides of us. Pretty impressive amounts of people present to control only about 100 of us.
Even so, there was no need for the military since the march was truly intended to be a peaceful one so when we walked as close as we could to the bridge and when we reached the barricades we simply turned around and walked over to a platform to do the final speeches and prayers. At this time Ashin Sopaka talked about the importance of the march and what is symbolizes which then was followed by a speech done by a woman from Women’s League of Burma (done in Thai, not sure what it was about), followed by a Muslim, Christian, and Buddhist prayer and finalized with the Buddhist monks doing a “universal love” chant. During this whole demonstration, nearly everyone who had taken part in the march was holding a banner or waving a peace flag. Soon after the final Buddhist chant, everyone disbursed. Most of the monks piled in the back of a truck and everyone headed in their own directions.
For my first demonstration, I don’t think it could have gone any better. It was a great model for how to organize and instigate a meaningful and peaceful protest. One thought that frequently crossed my mind when marching though was how small the number of people marching was compared to the total number affected by these same issues in just the Mae Sot area alone. Even though there were about a hundred of us, as we marched numerous trucks drove by loaded with labor workers, known to be a lot of Burmese, not to mention other people all around working in the fields. I couldn’t stop thinking, how many of these people have been negatively impacted by Burma but don’t have the “privilege” of taking a Monday, or any day for that matter, and marching for themselves? How can these people be mobilized to fight for their own rights and not just have a select few march on their behalf?
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