Escaped Buddhist Monk offers insights into Sept. Protests in Myanmar

"It's a stain on the history of Burma. Inside Burma now, a lot of students and people are organizing the next step against the SPDC. I think it will be the same time as the Olympics in China. That is my own opinion." Ashin Kovida, escaped Burmese Buddhist monk

On Oct. 18th. Ashin Kovida, a Buddhist monk in Thailand escaped from twenty one days in hiding. Fleeing from the pursing Burmese military, Kovida is considered to be one of the main organizers of the September pro democracy protests which gripped the world as monks and citizens lined the streets of Yangoon. Considered a "wanted man" by the Burmese military, Kovida has sought refuge across the border in Thailand.

Now, a week after his escape, Kovida has begun offering the world his insightful knowledge of the historic protests.

Here are a few excerpts from the IHT of Kovida's six hour long interview,

Friends in Yangon helped him dye his hair, which was growing in, blond. He bought a crucifix in a local market and several days later boarded a bus heading toward the Thai border.

He passed about eight checkpoints - he could not remember exactly how many - on the way to the border. He used a fake identity card, and reached the border town of Myawadi on Oct. 17. The next morning he crossed the Moei River to Thailand in a boat.

The crucifix was a brilliant touch. When monks have to "act like a Christian" to escape an oppressive regime what have we come to? Where are we going?

Ashin Kovida led daily protests through Yangon from Sept. 18 through Sept. 27, the day after the authorities began raiding monasteries.

One of his main preoccupations, he said, was being able to feed the thousands of monks who had come to Yangon from other regions. He also worried about the presence of what he called "fake monks," who he suspected had been planted by the military government.

"Fake Monks", hmm could the Burmese military have posed as monks and entered the monasteries? A thought to consider. Remember the "fake monks" for later

The group received financial help from three well-known Burmese dissidents - an actor, a comedian and a poet - but did not receive any foreign assistance during their protests
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Older monks and abbots urged the monks to carry out their protests inside the monasteries, but Ashin Kovida said younger monks had defied those directives thinking that protesting within their cloistered world would not do any good.
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"We realized that there was no leadership," he said. "A train must have a locomotive."

On September 19th Kovida became that locomotive. Sitting upon the floor inside the Sule Pagoda with 2,000 protesters and 500 monks, Kovida rose up and delivered an impassioned plea,

"To continue demonstrations in a peaceful way we must have leadership,I call on 10 monks to come join me in the front." Fifteen monks came forward. He latter added, "In this country at present we are facing hardships. People are starving, prices are rising. Under this military government there are so many human rights abuses. I call on people to come to join together with us. We will continue these protests peacefully every day until we win. If there are no human rights there is no value of a human."

I feel like getting up and protesting right now. Kovida for Pres. We need more Buddhist Monk Kovida's. Now back to the "fake monks",

In the Oct. 18 edition of The New Light of Myanmar, the state-run newspaper, he was accused of hiding "48 yellowish high-explosive TNT cartridges" in his monastery.

"They just want to associate the monks with violence and terrorism. I have been in the monkhood since I was so young. My whole life I have been studying only Buddhism and peaceful things."

He said his father is a carpenter and his mother runs a small market stall selling onion and chilies. Both live in Rakhine State, in northwest Myanmar near the border with Bangladesh.

Fake monks found. Dirty rotten War Mongers getting their 'intel' inside the monasteries. Monks don't run around with "explosives". Who are they kidding? If one grows up living in peace, they offer peace back to the world, not explosives. Goes to show the leadership are completely ignorant A$$e$ who live in a "bubble" provided via the oil and gas industry.

Kovida ends the interview by offering us hope that one day...Burma will rise again...

"It's a stain on the history of Burma. Inside Burma now, a lot of students and people are organizing the next step against the SPDC" - the acronym for the military government. "I think it will be the same time as the Olympics in China," referring to the 2008 Games in Beijing. "That is my own opinion."

Same Players. Different Scandal.