Saffron Revolution facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Saffron Revolution |
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| Part of the colour revolutions | |||
Protesters in Yangon with a banner that reads non-violence: national movement in Burmese, in the background is Shwedagon Pagoda
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| Date | 15 August 2007 – 26 September 2008 | ||
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| Goals |
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| Methods | Civil resistance, demonstrations, nonviolent resistance | ||
| Resulted in | Uprising suppressed, political reforms and election of a new government | ||
| Parties to the civil conflict | |||
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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.
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.
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. Some news reports referred to the protests as the Saffron Revolution, or ရွှေဝါရောင်တော်လှန်ရေး ([sw̥èi wà jàʊɰ̃ tɔ̀ l̥àɰ̃ jéi]).
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.
Images for kids
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Protesting monks gathering at the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon
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Monks protesting in Yangon, carrying the Buddhist flag
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Protesters at Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon
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A Burmese protest march in Chicago
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A "Free Burma" banner in Portland, Oregon.
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Protesters against the junta crackdown in Myanmar, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 5 October.
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A stop symbol
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Protesters march in London
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Protesters march in Kitchener, Ontario
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See also
- All Burma Monks' Alliance
- Buddhism in Myanmar
- Burma VJ – Reporting from a closed country. Documentary made up of footage taken from the revolution.
- Energy crisis
- Impact of the Arab Spring#Burma/Myanmar – attempts to copy the methods of the 2011 Egyptian revolution
- Myanmar protests (2021–present)
