Burmese Monks Take to Streets

Thousands of Buddhist monks are protesting in the streets of Burma, and they’ll continue to do so until they’ve “wiped the military dictatorship from the land,” their leaders said today. This is the first time the monks have explicitly challenged the government, the BBC reports, and though the demonstrations are peaceful, they raise the possibility of rebellion.

Over 1,500 monks braved monsoon rains to pray in the streets of Rangoon. Protests have been ongoing since mid-August, and this week has seen 4 straight days of anti-government displays, the largest in nearly 20 years. British diplomats said they were “appalled by the steps the regime has taken to silence peaceful protest and to clamp down on dissent.” (More Burma stories.)