RANGOON — At midnight of Sept 26, 2007, two truckloads of soldiers rushed into Ngwe Kyayan Monstery, kicking in its door before opening fire on the residing monks and laymen, and arresting anyone in sight.
The reason for their actions: most monks at the monastery in Rangoon’s South Okkalapa Township had joined the Saffron Revolution, a monk-led, pro-democratic uprising that brought hundreds of thousands of people out into the streets of Burma’s largest city in 2007.
“The headlights of the trucks illuminated the whole monastery compound. They charged in while opening fire on us. We had to run for our lives,” a monk recalled in a recent interview.
After the raid, more than 100 monks were detained and questioned for three months for their involvement in the uprising. A government court set up in Insein Prison sentenced the defrocked clergymen to prison terms, with most receiving eight years’ imprisonment. The last monks were released in 2012.
The causality rate of the raid that night still remains unknown. The arrests were part of a bloody crackdown by the junta that brought the Saffron Revolution to an end after three months of street protests.
Seven years later, the monastery, once the center of the monk-led revolution, is no longer a hotbed of political dissent.
The more than 100 residing monks, including those who took part in the revolution, now solely focus on religious activities. They study Buddhist scripture, meditate or collect alms in the neighborhood; these days Ngwe Kyayan seems no different than any other monastery in Burma.
But most monks at the monastery share a common attitude towards outsiders, whom they view with distrust.
“It’s our common knowledge that the military government had some moles, like thugs or military intelligence guys, at the monastery at the time. If not, how could they know about the fact that we were involved in the uprising, or that we lived in this particular monastery?” another monk involved in the Saffron Revolution explained.
“That’s why we no longer talk to strangers about what we did in 2007. Fear is still lingering with us,” he told The Irrawaddy.
