Rev. Danny Fisher

The Democratic Voice of Burma is reporting that about 300 Burmese Buddhist monks staged a peaceful march in Sittwe this morning to mark the one-year anniversary of the Saffron Revolution. An eyewitness told the news organization:

At around 10am, around 150 monks started to walk from Biloo-ma bridge in single file along the main road,” the witness said. When they were about to turn into U Ottama road, security forces turned up in large numbers. It was raining hard and the public came out on the street and offered their respect to the monks for staging a peaceful walk. When they reached the junction of Hmyetlwagyi and U Ottama roads, the monks made a sign for the joyous end [of the walk] and broke up into small groups and dispersed. Despite the heavy rain, the monks maintained their serene and peaceful attitude during the march. Soon after the monks left, more monks turned up–-they must have been late for some reason. There were about 100 monks, I was told. Around 300 monks in all were involved today. According to the monks, they were marching and offering prayers to mark last year’s Saffron Revolution.

The same eyewitness told the DVB that five monks in total were arrested and detained by the police following the marches. It is not known whether they have all been released or if some are still detained.