Photo: Reuters

This report in the New York Times and elsewhere talks of growing protests led by Buddhist monks against Myanmar’s military regime.  Yesterday the protestors were greeted by Aung Ssn Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and leader of Myanmar’s democracy movement, as they marched past her house. 

“The monks are the highest moral authority in the Burmese culture,” said Soe Aung, a spokesman for a coalition of exile groups based in Thailand. “If something happens to the monks, the situation will spread much faster than what happened to the students in 1988.”

The cautious approach by authorities — and the challenges it poses — were demonstrated on Saturday when guards removed barriers to allow about 500 monks to walk down the tree shaded street where Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi lives.

She met them at the iron gate outside her home and witnesses told news agencies that Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi was in tears as she greeted the monks, who chanted prayers as they faced the security officers with riot shields who sealed off her home.

Could this be the beginning of the end for Myanmar’s military junta?  Let’s hope so!