Myanmar Journal: The Unrelenting Cacophony of Pots and Pans
The following thread is being written by a vipassana meditator from the tradition of S.N. Goenka who is currently in Myanmar, who has played a pivotal role in the organization’s mission. For his safety, personal details have been obscured, but he has made it his desire that his observations be read by meditators everywhere. Please note that we are now able to ensure donations reach this person as well as the community he is supporting.
Tonight at 8 pm we began banging pots and pans as we have done every night since the day of the coup. (One of these days I will have to explain more about how successful this action has been). There have been many instances where soldiers have come into our Quarter to put an end to this but the next night we are always back at it. This has been the case at every Quarter that I am aware of. In the early days of the CDM the regime actually enacted a new law specifically prohibiting this and the reason they give is that it could kill older people (I’ve forgotten the number because they have come up with so many new laws it has become impossible to keep track of them all). I am happy to report that so far no one has died in our Quarter and in fact there are many elderly people who join in each night!
Each night as we engage in this activity we do the best we san to monitor our road so that we can see them coming and quit the banging before they arrive. If you are caught in the act they will enter your apartment and arrest the guilty party while at the same time stealing whatever they please. But given that the security staff of 75 to 100 we once had and who have now already been arrested or are in hiding we have to watch as best we can. Tonight we were taken completely by surprise.
Five minutes after we began banging out of nowhere we suddenly had many soldiers appear in front of our apartment and immediately forced their way into one of the safe houses across the street and arrested 3 well known protestors one of whom has become somewhat a folk hero to many of us. He usually changes apartments when the banging of pots and singing of songs has finished but tonight there just wasn’t enough time.
After they took those arrested and reached to end of the road our end of the road resumed the banging and just as quickly the soldiers came back to our end of the street. When we went silent the opposite end of the street started banging and back the soldiers went to the other end. This went back and forth for more than 10 minutes and the entire time the soldiers are shouting, throwing bricks and stones at windows as well as shooting them out with sling shots.
While such a game of cat and mouse may seem like nonsense what the soldiers didn’t realize was that as they were running back and forth down the road occupants from other safe houses were sneaking out to safety. But sadly we did lose 3 really great people but it could have been worse.
As soon as the soldiers were out of sight people were extremely angry and many started cursing and swearing at them at the tops of their lungs and then the pots and pans were sounded once again. And once again the soldiers came back with an even larger force again breaking out windows and we finally went quiet. After about 10 minutes they finally left and we started up once again. The soldiers apparently tired of the activity and did not return. We continued banging and singing songs of protest and then everyone went back indoors. From phone calls we are told that the soldiers have returned to the main road bordering our Quarter where there are many military trucks.
While it is painful and very worrisome to lose 3 people tonight, overall we have been very fortunate. For the past 10 or more days soldiers and police enter our Quarter each day to make arrests of those in hiding but each time they have come up empty handed.
Now from main road we hear pots and pans going off and phone calls starting to come in. Now we are hearing stun grenades going off and quite a bit of gunfire. Now learning 3 more students in hiding have been arrested. I will have to end at this point.