Monday in Burma saw still larger protests in all major cities. An estimated 50,000 to 100,000 monks and civilians marched in Rangoon, making for the largest anti-government demonstration seen in the country since 1988.Amidst the mass marches, the government is showing signs of abandoning the restraint it's shown so far. Brig Gen Thura Myint Maung, minister for religion, warned elder monks to reign in the younger, more militant clerics who are leading the movement, saying action would be taken against the monks' protest marches "according to the law if they cannot be stopped by religious teachings".
Tuesday (already underway on the far side of the world) may be showdown day in the Golden Land. Stay tuned.
By the way, we keep referring to events of 1988 as a watershed moment in the history of Burma. For the full story, this Wikipedia article does a pretty good job of summing up events around what is known locally as the "8888 Uprising" (it got started on Aug 8, 1988, or 8/8/88).
Suffice it say here, the Burmese have been down this road before. Just when it looked like progress was being made, the army and government thugs went crazy in a way the '68 Chicago PD never even contemplated, killing an estimated 3,000 civilians.
As a bit of background, here are a couple of YouTube clips with a bit of narration (mostly in Burmese, I'm afraid), telling the story of that tragically failed bit. From a few students to huge crowds of marchers, the strangest version of Dust in the Wind you'll ever hear, and the start of Daw Suu Kyi's activism, well, you'll get the idea...
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