Free Saffron Monks

FREE BURMA PROJECT


Free The Saffron Monks & Nuns From Prison.

Please lend your support for the release of Burma's 220 monks and nuns who remain prisoners of conscience for participating in the peaceful demonstrations of September 2007. The "Saffron Revolution" drew tens of thousands of monks and nuns on to the streets. They chanted the Metta Sutta (loving-kindness), for the well being and merit of all living beings. Monks and nuns implored the SPDC government to act with compassion towards the people suffering under economic hardship and to apologize and reform their actions taken against the monks and the religion. In response, the regime unleashed a violent and unprecedented attack against the demonstrators that continued off the streets and into the monastery grounds.
For a month, the military continued to round up protestors who had participated, raiding 52 monasteries, often at night. Monks were beaten, killed and many more carted off to prison with no regard to their age or standing. Revered abbots in their 80's and 90's and novices as young as five were disrobed and placed into detention centers.
By some estimates, as many as 1,400 Sanghas were rounded up without respect to the procedures of Burmese or International law. Sanghas endured beatings, interrogations, and torture. Many of them disappeared-- sent away to distant prisons where their families and monastic companions lost track of them. Official statistics on the number of monks and nuns who were killed in the uprisings will never be known.
Crematoriums were put into 24-hour operation in the days following the crackdown to burn the bodies of those who were killed on the streets and inside the Monasteries. Unconfirmed reports assert that in order to keep the Sanghas from reaching the hospitals where they could be seen and counted, injured monks and nuns were taken to the crematoriums to be cremated alive.
Awareness and condemnation are vital tools of accountability that we in the International community can take to exert pressure on the regime to free the remaining Saffron Revolution monks and nuns still in prison under conditions that are a form of torture. Please give your support and solidarity to them and to the Burmese people.

Sign our petition to free Burma's Saffron Monks, Nuns, Political Prisoners today!
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