Saffron Revolution

This article is about the 2007–2008 protests in Myanmar. For other protests in Myanmar, see List of protests in Myanmar.

Saffron Revolution
Protesters in Yangon with a banner that reads "Non-violence: National Movement" in Burmese, in the background is Shwedagon Pagoda
Date15 August 2007 – 26 September 2008
Location
Myanmar
Caused by
Goals
MethodsCivil resistance, demonstrations, nonviolent resistance
Resulted inUprising suppressed, political reforms and election of a new government
Parties

National League for Democracy

Student protestors
Theravada monks

SPDC

Supported by:

China (alleged)

The Saffron Revolution (Burmese: ရွှေဝါရောင်တော်လှန်ရေး) was a series of economic and political protests and demonstrations that took place during August, September, and October 2007 in Myanmar. The protests were triggered by the decision of the national military government to remove subsidies on the sales prices of fuel. The national government is the only supplier of fuels and the removal of the price subsidy immediately caused diesel and petrol prices to increase by 66–100% and the price of compressed natural gas for buses to increase 500% in less than a week.[1][2]

The various protests were led by students, political activists, including women, and Buddhist monks and took the form of a campaign of nonviolent resistance, sometimes also called civil resistance.[3]

In response to the protests, dozens of protesters were arrested or detained. Starting in September 2007 the protests were led by thousands of Buddhist monks, and those protests were allowed to proceed until a renewed government crackdown in late September 2007.[4] Some news reports referred to the protests as the Saffron Revolution, or ရွှေဝါရောင်တော်လှန်ရေး ([sw̥èi wà jàʊɰ̃ tɔ̀ l̥àɰ̃ jéi]).[5][6]

The exact number of casualties from the 2007 protests is not known, but estimates range from 13 to 31 deaths resulting from either the protests or reprisals by the government. Several hundred people were arrested or detained, many (but not all) of whom were released. In the event, Senior General Than Shwe remained in power until he retired in 2011 at age 78.

  1. ^ "Human Rights Concern". Archived from the original on 17 February 2009. Retrieved 7 April 2009.
  2. ^ "BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | Burma leaders double fuel prices". news.bbc.co.uk. 15 August 2007. Archived from the original on 30 May 2017. Retrieved 16 May 2015.
  3. ^ Christina Fink, "The Moment of the Monks: Burma, 2007", in Adam Roberts and Timothy Garton Ash (eds.), Civil Resistance and Power Politics: The Experience of Non-violent Action from Gandhi to the Present, Oxford University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-19-955201-6, pp. 354–370. [1]
  4. ^ "UN envoy warns of Myanmar crisis". www.aljazeera.com. Archived from the original on 28 February 2008.
  5. ^ Booth, Jenny (24 September 2007). "Military junta threatens monks in Burma". The Times. London. Archived from the original on 25 May 2010. Retrieved 22 April 2010.
  6. ^ "100,000 Protestors Flood Streets of Rangoon in "Saffron Revolution"". Archived from the original on 17 October 2020. Retrieved 10 April 2009.