Buddhists in India protest against Burmas military junta

Buddhists in different parts of India today took out protest rallies, demanding international intervention for immediate restoration of democracy in Myanmar.

Leh/ Mumbai, Oct 8 : Buddhists in different parts of India today took out protest rallies, demanding international intervention for immediate restoration of democracy in Myanmar.

Myanmar has seen hundreds of thousands of Buddhist monks protesting in the country for the last few weeks, calling for democracy and an end to the military government.

In Leh town, hundreds of people today marched through the streets protesting against the killing of monks in Myanmar.

"Today the people of Ladakh organised a very big rally to protest against the recent destruction of the Buddha statue in Swat valley by the fundamentalist in that country. Secondly, the killing of Buddhist monks in Myanmar by the dictators of that country," said Tashi Chotak, one of the protestors.

Meanwhile, in Mumbai several monks took out a rally to show their solidarity with the people of Myanmar.

"We, the Buddhist of India, are demanding that General Than Shwe, (military dictator of Myanmar) immediately hand over power to the people of Myanmar, so that freedom and democracy should come to Myanmar immediately," said Bhante Dharaviro Mahathero, general secretary of All India Monks Council.

Although New Delhi initially supported Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy in Myanmar, it changed its strategy in the early 1990s to court the military regime in what is seen as an effort to counter China's influence there.

The current protests in Yangon started in reaction to shock fuel price rises and have welled into a mass uprising against 45 years of military rule led by monks, the moral core of the Buddhist nation.

ANI