Rangoon Youth Join Hands to Protect Demonstrating Monks

About 1,000 Buddhist monks peacefully marched through Rangoon on Thursday as hundreds of students and young people protected the monks by joining hands as a human chain, witnesses said.

Monks marching in rain in Rangoon on Thursday

It was the third day of protest demonstrations by monks across the country.

Some monks near the head of the marching column carried religious flags and one monk carried an alms bowl turned upside down as a symbol of not accepting alms from the military government or its supporters.

The monks and laypeople marched in the rain.

The protesting monks gathered at the Shwedagon Pagoda and then marched to Sule Pagoda, passing by the former US Embassy and the British Embassy in downtown Rangoon.

According to witnesses, several Western foreigners also followed along with the monks, along with a car believed to be from one of the embassies.

Other nearby cars, believed to belong to Burmese security authorities, carried passengers who took video and still photographs from inside the cars, according to one source.

Sources said about two hundred laypeople walked along with the monks as well as a number of individuals who were suspected of being members of the security services.

The march ended peacefully about 4 p.m.