A leading activist monk recounts his personal experiences of oppression and torture at the hands of Burma?s self-appointed protectors of the Buddhist faith... "ASHIN Pyinnya Jota is the deputy abbot of Rangoon?s Maggin Monastery. He has also been a political prisoner twice since 1990. Now, nearly six months after Burma?s military rulers crushed monk-led protests last September, he is in hiding in a monastery in the Thai border town of Mae Sot, opposite Myawaddy. The 48-year-old monk played a leading role in last year?s uprising as one of the founding members of the All Burma Monks Alliance. After months of evading the authorities in Burma, he finally fled to Thailand in early February. Monks praying at Shwedagon Pagoda in Rangoon before joining an anti-government march on September 24, 2007. (Photo: Reuters) Speaking from a Thai monastery where more than a dozen Burmese monks have taken refuge since last year?s crackdown, he described the injustices that fueled the monks? movement and the Buddhist basis for his decades of political activism..."