Since the fuel price hikes in Burma on 15 August there have been increasing unrest. Daily demonstrations are loud and spreading across the country, the most public display of discontent in almost 20 years.
But the military have brought both their guns and goons out on the streets to crush rising opposition to their rule in what some Burmese activists are calling their ‘Last Stand'.
In a country where 2 out of 5 children are severely malnourished and the majority of people live in a poverty so dire many are unable to provide basic food, clothing and shelter for their families, the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) instructed all Ministry of Energy distribution outlets to raise the prices of petrol, diesel and natural gas by between 400-600 per cent.
They did this with no prior warning and without consulting economists, business leaders or not surprisingly, ordinary people. The next day, relatively small scale but by no means insignificant protest actions broke out in Rangoon, led by former 1988 student uprising leaders, Min Ko Naing and Ko Ko Kyi to name a few. Not just a man's domain, women's activists such as Ma Nilar Thein and Ma Mie Mie were also on the streets leading calls for the reduction of fuel prices and calling attention to the need for immediate political and economic change in Burma. As they walked, albeit in relatively small numbers, countless bystanders and small business owners clapped them on, but few of the general public at that time considered joining these protests.
However that situation soon changed. On the 5th September in Pakokku, members of the state-backed Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) and a civilian militia group known as the Swann Arr Shin, also established and supported by the military regime, fired warning shots at a group of 600 monks who had added their voice to spreading protests over the unaffordability of rice and cooking oil. At this peaceful rally, junta thugs beat bystanders and made several arrests. Two monks were tied to wooden posts and in clear view of bystanders, taunted and beaten with rifle butts.
In military run Burma, this event was a turning point in the protests which until that time had been relatively small and involved people already openly active in the pro-democracy movement. For the estimated 80% of the population who are Buddhist, this act of violence by the