Maggin Monastery Ordered to Close

Irrawaddy
by Wai Moe
November 28, 2007

A prominent monastery in Rangoon has been ordered to close within one week by the Burmese authorities, according to the 88 Generation Students group.

Nilar Thein, a spokesperson for the 88 group, told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that authorities came to Maggin Monastery in Thingangyun Township in Rangoon on Tuesday afternoon and again on Wednesday morning.

“They came to the monastery again this morning [Wesnesday] around 8 a.m," she said. "The officials who came were U Kyin Khine and U Kyaw Kyaw Tun from the Ministry of Religion, along with a township State and Development Council official, U Yin Lin.”

The officials told monks in the monastery that they have to move immediately. However, the monks replied that they cannot move so quickly and asked for two weeks to move.

“The monks told them [officials] that the abbot of the monastery has been under arrest since September. Other monks at the monastery are still behind bars. The monks in the monastery now had been released from detention eariler.

The monks asked them [officials] why the authorities continuously harass them,” said Nilar Thein. No response was given.

Maggin Monastery has been raided by soldiers four times since September. The abbot, U Indaka, a former political prisoner, is still being detained at an unknown location.

In 1990, he was arrested and sentenced to five years imprisonment for his role in a "patam nikkujjana kamma"—the boycott of alms from members of the military regime, which followed the junta’s raids on monasteries in Mandalay. At that time, he was forced to disrobe. He was released in late 1994 and returned to the monastery as abbot.

Maggin Monastery is known as a hospice and treatment center for HIV/AIDS patients who come to Rangoon to receive medical treatment. After the monastery’s monks were arrested in raids following the September uprising, all patients were transferred to the Wai Bar Gi Infectious Diseases Hospital in North Okkalapa Township.

Commenting on the order to close the monastery, Bo Kyi, the joint-secretary of a human rights group, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), noted that the junta had said that its arrests and crackdowns were over after it met with the UN Special Envoy to Burma, Ibrahim Gambari.

“But crackdowns and arrests are going on," he said, "and these kinds of acts do not create a good environment for national reconciliation and democratic transitions. Crackdowns and arrests are not the solution.”