I met Ashin Yevata, a humble monk from Burma (Myanmar), about a year ago. Shortly after we met, he helped lead the massive protests that spread throughout the country calling for change. Burma is one of the poorest countries in the world, strangled by its own despotic government. Forced labor, torture and systematic genocide are practiced by the ruthless Junta. In 1988, students started what became nation-wide protests for change and Democracy. They ended with massacres of the people by their own government. It is estimated that the government slaughtered 3,000 of its own citizens (though the government estimates that there were only a few casualties). When Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and head of the National League for Democracy, was elected Prime Minister, the government put her under house arrest where she has remained for the greater part of the last twenty years
Burmese
English
