One year after the protests in Burma, The Christian Science Monitor reports on some of the new tactics young activist monks are turning to:
“Last September the Army proved too powerful for us and defeated our nonviolent tactics,” says the young monk, whose real name, like those of other activists in this story, has been changed for security reasons. “We need weapons. That is the only way we can bring down this regime.”
…”The younger activists’ frustrations are growing. They want to take up arms because they were so brutally suppressed last September. They have gone their whole lives without seeing change,” says Win Min, an expert on Burmese political affairs at Thailand’s Chiang Mai University.
While the activists turning toward violence still form a minority, young monks have never before openly advocated violence, and this may signal a new phase in the evolution of the political opposition, says Mr. Win.
Continue reading this first article in a three-part series here.