Will Burma’s Buddhist monks help bring an end to the military coup?

In what could transpire to be a significant development, Buddhist monks joined tens of thousands of anti-coup protesters in the Burmese capital of Rangoon on Wednesday. This is the sixth continuous day of mass demonstrations since the military seized control.

In a country where over 80 per cent of the population are Buddhists – and devoutly so – men of the cloth are influential. In fact, saffron-robed monks taking to the streets in 2007 paved the way for an end to 49 years of military rule in Burma in 2011. Along with China, they are key to restoring democracy in the south-east Asian state.

On 1 February Burmese generals again seized full control of the country, terminating a five-year power sharing agreement with the National League for Democracy (NLD) party led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. She, along with the country’s president, Win Myint, and an unknown number of NLD leaders and members of civil society, have been detained.