YANGON - MYANMAR'S military rulers are hunting for several 'bogus' Buddhist monks who led recent mass anti-government protests, state media reported.
The military will also be taking action against people who organised the protests whom they described as 'ex-convicts' who had joined the order, according to a report on Thursday in the New Light Of Myanmar, the mouthpiece of the junta.
The paper reported Religious Affairs Minister Thura Myint Maung as telling senior monks at a meeting on Wednesday that 'most of the monks from the National Front of Monks are ex-convicts'.
The report suggested that the monks with a criminal past planned the protests while people posing as the clergy led the demonstrations.
The minister said the authorities had detained several monks for questioning but were releasing those who had unwittingly taken part in the protests.
He did not give any details.
Buddhist monks enjoy great respect in Myanmar and the violent suppression of their protests has seriously hurt the junta's reputation.
In efforts to counter this, state newspapers have been filled with stories suggesting that the monks who organised the protest are a tiny minority in the monkhood.
They also report virtually daily on junta members visiting monasteries to make donations.
Meanwhile, Buddhist monk Ashin Kovida, 24, who says he was one of the leaders of the recent protests in Myanmar and escaped last week, has painted a picture of a bare-bones group of young monks planning and organising the nationwide uprising.
Speaking from the Thai border town of Mae Sot, he said he had been elected the leader of a group of 15 monks and led daily protests in Yangon from Sept 18 to Sept 27.
He said he escaped to Thailand by using a false identification card, dyeing his hair blond and wearing a crucifix.
Eight members of his organising committee are missing and the other six are hiding in Yangon, he said.
He said his group received financial help from three well-known Myanmar dissidents - an actor, a comedian and a poet - but did not receive foreign aid during the protests.
He also said he was worried about what he called 'fake monks', whom he suspected the military government had planted.
Many details of his account could not be confirmed independently, but his role as an organiser was well known among non-government organisations in Myanmar.
