Myanmar Crackdown Isolates Monks

VPM | By Renee Montagne and Michael Sullivan

Published September 28, 2007 at 10:00 AM EDT

Updated July 7, 2023

RENEE MONTAGNE, host:

This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I’m Renee Montagne.

In Myanmar’s major city, soldiers and police are out in force today behind barbwire barricades as loud-speaker trucks warning people to stay off the street.

Yangon is reported quiet today. Yesterday, it was the bloodiest day in a monk-led protests against decades of military rule. Troops fired automatic weapons into crowds of demonstrators. At least eight people have been confirmed dead, though it’s believed the death toll is considerably higher.

We go now to NPR’s Michael Sullivan who’s monitoring the situation in Myanmar -and he is in Bangkok, Thailand.

And, Michael, what’s the latest? So far today it’s turning in to rather a quiet day considering the last 10.

MICHAEL SULLLIVAN: So far, yes. I mean, we know, Renee, that some people have come back out on to the streets to demonstrate but in small numbers. We know that the security forces, as you said, have saturated the city and are keeping more demonstrators from gathering. We know that the government has declared the area around five monasteries as no-go areas, that’s according to diplomats. But beyond that, we know very little and, I think in part, because the government now appears to be severely restricting information getting out.

Today, the military reportedly shut down Yangon’s Internet cafes. And I think that’s to stop news and pictures from getting to the outside world. People have been using the Internet to send photos. And I witnessed accounts of what’s been happening to various news agencies abroad and interest groups abroad and they have been broadcasting them into the world. And that access now appears to be severely restricted if not shutdown altogether. And even phone calls in and out of the country are getting much harder.

MONTAGNE: Well, in a sense, was that expected? In a way, it’s rather surprising that the government allowed these sorts of communications to go on for as long as they did.

SULLLIVAN: Yeah. I mean, everybody expected this to happen. I mean, I was in the country about a week. I left Tuesday night. And even then people were saying that they expected both the phone and the Internet lines to be cut when the military began its crackdown. And everyone pretty much knew that a crackdown would come.

And it’s looking more clearer now that despite the length of time it took the generals to respond – they do have a plan. And that plan is to rein in the monks who’ve leading these things for more than a week. More than a hundred have been arrested in the past few days, a great many more now confined to their monasteries by force. And if there’s no monks on the streets then I think ordinary people are probably going to think harder about going on without them, especially after yesterday’s violence.

I mean, the military has a long history of crushing dissent. They’ve been in power for almost 50 years. They know how to do this. They’ve had lots of practice. And they don’t hesitate to use force when they feel they need to. That’s how they stay in power. Killing monks would be something different. I know they think that that would enrage the public. And I think that’s why we haven’t seen that happen. I mean, I know there have been some reports suggesting monks have been killed, but I haven’t seen any pictures – I don’t know if you have – because I think the military knows that this would be a very, very bad thing.

So I think they’re being careful not to let it happen. Yeah, they’re arresting monks. Yes, they’re beating them. But mostly, they seem to be isolating the monks from the general public.

MONTAGNE: Now, diplomatic protests, Michael, against Myanmar’s government seemed to be growing daily, even China is talking a little bit tough and it’s its great ally. Having any effect?

SULLLIVAN: There have been strong statements from all over. But I’m just not sure that any of it really means anything, that the generals really listen to anybody. I mean, events on the ground over the past couple of days certainly suggest otherwise. They’re doing what they think they need to do to stay in power. And today, at least, it seems to be working. I think you can score this round, today, to the military.

MONTAGNE: NPR’s Michael Sullivan speaking from Bangkok, Thailand.

If you want to find out more about the politics of Myanmar and see images of the protests there, go to npr.org. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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Renee Montagne

Renee Montagne, one of the best-known names in public radio, is a special correspondent and host for NPR News.

Montagne's most recent assignment was a yearlong collaboration with ProPublica reporter Nina Martin, investigating the alarming rate of maternal mortality in the U.S., as compared to other developed countries. The series, called "Lost Mothers," was recognized with more than a dozen awards in American journalism, including a Peabody Award, a George Polk Award, and Harvard's Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Journalism. The series was also named a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize.

From 2004 to 2016, Montagne co-hosted NPR's Morning Edition, the most widely heard radio news program in the United States. Her first experience as host of an NPR newsmagazine came in 1987, when she, along with Robert Siegel, were named the new hosts of All Things Considered.

After leaving All Things Considered, Montagne traveled to South Africa in early 1990, arriving to report from there on the day Nelson Mandela emerged from 27 years in prison. In 1994, she and a small team of NPR reporters were awarded an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Silver Baton for their coverage of South Africa's historic elections that led to Mandela becoming that country's first black president.

Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Montagne has made 10 extended reporting trips to Afghanistan. She has traveled to every major city, from Kabul to Kandahar, to peaceful villages, and to places where conflict raged. She has profiled Afghanistan's presidents and power brokers, but focused on the stories of Afghans at the heart of that complex country: school girls, farmers, mullahs, poll workers, midwives, and warlords. Her coverage has been honored by the Overseas Press Club, and, for stories on Afghan women in particular, by the Gracie Awards.

One of her most cherished honors dates to her days as a freelance reporter in the 1980s, when Montagne and her collaborator, the writer Thulani Davis, were awarded "First Place in Radio" by the National Association of Black Journalists for their series "Fanfare for the Warriors." It told the story of African-American musicians in the military bands from WW1 to Vietnam.

Montagne began her career in radio pretty much by accident, when she joined a band of friends, mostly poets and musicians, who were creating their own shows at a new, scrappy little San Francisco community station called KPOO. Her show was called Women's Voices.

Montagne graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California, Berkeley. Her career includes teaching broadcast writing at New York University's Graduate Department of Journalism (now the Carter Institute).

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