Saffron Revolution

The Saffron Revolution (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 (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. The phrase "Saffron Revolution" connects the protests against Myanmar's military dictatorship to the saffron-coloured robes which are widely associated with Buddhist monks, who were at the forefront of the demonstrations. The robes of Burmese monks are similar to the color of whole saffron. While similar terms for protests (see colour revolution) had been used elsewhere for the process of gradual or peaceful revolution in other nations, this seems to be the first time it has been associated with a particular protest as it was unfolding, and the international press seized upon the term in reporting on the Burmese protests.