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Myanmar
military slams ``exploitation'' of top monks
07:05 a.m. Jan 04, 2000 Eastern YANGON, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Myanmar's military government said on Tuesday two prominent Buddhist monks who urged it to enter a dialogue with the pro-democracy opposition had been exploited for political ends. Two of the top Sayadaws, or presiding monks, in the devoutly Buddhist country wrote appeals to both the ruling military council and the opposition National League for Democracy urging them to work for national reconciliation. The monks were the abbots of the Kyakhet Wain monastery near Bago, about 80 km (50 miles) north of Yangon, and of the Maha Gandayone monastery in Mandalay, the country's second city. ``It is quite regretful to learn that some quarters have been exploiting the Venerable Sayadaws for their own ends,'' a government statement said. It said the monks had been made to participate ``unwittingly'' in activities strictly prohibited in the Buddhist religion, and rumours had been spread suggesting their opinions reflected those of the whole monkhood. ``Nevertheless,'' the statement said, ``The government agrees with the opinion of the said two Sayadaws and hopes that in this auspicious time of the beginning of the new millennium the National League for Democracy is willing to adopt a more realistic and flexible policy...'' There are about two dozen Sayadaws in Myanmar, who as the senior monks in a 400,000-strong monastic order can be extremely influential. Earlier on Tuesday, one of Myanmar's surviving independence leaders appealed in a statement issued at an independence day ceremony for the military and the opposition to follow the monks' advice. Bohmu Aung, 90, said Myanmar was in political turmoil due to a failure to convene a People's Parliament elected in the last general election in 1990, which Suu Kyi's NLD won by a landslide. Bohmu Aung was one of Myanmar's ``Thirty Comrades,'' the group which led the struggle for independence won in 1948. The government and NLD, which is led by 1991 Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi blame each other for a lack of dialogue. |