Monasteries in Sitwe Empty

Source: Democratic Voice of Burma

7th October 2007

Residents of Sitwe, Arakan State, told DVB that most of the monasteries in Sitwe are empty, and many buddhist institutes that used to have over 200 student monks are left with barely 10 monks.

This follows last week's demonstrations in Sitwe by monks after which religious officials told the student monks to return to their hometowns.

One resident said:
"There used to be 28 monks who would come to my house for alms. Now there're only 3."

Town officials issued official letters to the monks to return home, said a local source. The source added that some of these monks were arrested on their way back.

[Fighting Peacocks: Unconfirmed reports were received that some student monks from Mandalay, who were similarly told to leave, never made it back to their hometowns, and have gone missing.]

It was reported that about 1pm yesterday afternoon, a monk walking past a pagoda was arrested by security forces, who reportedly told the monk that he was not supposed to be there.

A resident said that about 60 demonstrators have been detained. It is not known where they are being held.

For the original article in Burmese, please follow this link:
http://burmese.dvb.no/news.php?id=2316