All Burma Monks' Alliance (abbreviated ABMA) is a coalition of monks in

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

, representing the All Burma Young Monks' Union, the Federation of all Burma Monks' Union, the Rangoon Young Monks' Union and the Sangha Duta Council of Burma. It was founded on 9 September 2007, at the start of the

Saffron Revolution The Saffron Revolution (; ) 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 govern ...

, after monks were brutalized at protests in

Sittwe Sittwe (, ), formerly Akyab (), is the capital of Rakhine State, Myanmar (Burma). Sittwe is located on an estuarial island created at the confluence of the Kaladan, Mayu, and Lay Mro rivers emptying into the Bay of Bengal. As of 2019 the cit ...

and

Pakokku Pakokku (, ) is the largest city in the Magway Region of Myanmar. It is situated about 30 km northeast of Bagan on the Irrawaddy River. It is the administration seat of Pakokku Township, Pakokku District and Gangaw District. Pakokku Bridge ...

. ABMA made several key demands to the ruling

State Peace and Development Council The State Peace and Development Council ( ; abbreviated SPDC or , ) was the official name of the Military dictatorship, military government of Burma (Myanmar) which, in 1997, succeeded the State Law and Order Restoration Council (; abbrevi ...

(SPDC), including a formal apology to the

Sangha Sangha or saṃgha () is a term meaning "association", "assembly", "company" or "community". In a political context, it was historically used to denote a governing assembly in a republic or a kingdom, and for a long time, it has been used b ...

, a reduction on fuel and commodity prices, release of

political prisoner A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although ...

s including

Aung San Suu Kyi Aung San Suu Kyi (born 19 June 1945) is a Burmese politician, diplomat, author, and political activist. She was awarded the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize. She served as State Counsellor of Myanmar and Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Myanmar), Ministe ...

, and dialogue with pro-democracy leaders for national reconciliation. On September 21 it escalated its demands, promising to "banish the common enemy evil regime from Burmese soil forever", which was met with a violent crackdown. Leaders such as U Gambira were imprisoned and tortured, while others became refugees or went into hiding. Outside of Myanmar, the ABMA supports refugee monks who fled retribution from the Burmese junta. 38 of these monks were relocated to the United States, but by 2010, all but eight had ceased to be practicing monks. In 2016 the executive-director-in-exile of the ABMA was U Pyinya Zawta, who lived in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...

at the time.

References

Buddhism in Myanmar Political organisations based in Myanmar Buddhist charities Religious organizations established in 2007 {{myanmar-org-stub

See also

References