YANGON, Myanmar — Myanmar’s junta said Friday that hundreds of Buddhist monks were detained during its crackdown on pro-democracy activists and that it was hunting for four more clerics it described as ringleaders of the uprising.
The government insisted that most of the monks had already been freed, with only 109 still in custody, according to an official statement broadcast on state TV.
The junta’s treatment of the Buddhist monks — who are revered in this deeply religious nation — is a key issue that could anger soldiers loyal to the military rulers.
Twenty-nine monks were suspected of being protest leaders and 25 of them were already in custody, state media said. It identified the monks still at large as U Kantiya, U Visaitta, U Awbatha and U Parthaka, but did not name their monasteries.
Demonstrations that began in mid-August over a fuel price increase swelled into Myanmar’s largest anti-government protests in 19 years, inspired largely by thousands of monks coming out on the streets.
Television images last week showed soldiers shooting into crowds of unarmed protesters — but the government on Friday described the troops’ reaction as “systematically controlling” the protesters.
The government says 10 people were killed in the Sept. 26-27 crackdown and 2,100 were detained. But dissident groups put the death toll at more than 200 and the number of detainees at nearly 6,000.
The U.N. special envoy to Myanmar, Ibrahim Gambari, said the military government’s new willingness to hold talks with detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi marked “an hour of historic opportunity.”
“This is a potentially welcome development which calls for maximum flexibility on all sides,” Gambari said.
On Thursday, Myanmar’s military ruler, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, said he was prepared to meet with Suu Kyi if she stopped supporting international sanctions against the country.
The state media said troops searched 18 monasteries where alleged rogue monks were living. Initially, authorities detained 513 monks, one novice, 167 men and 30 women lay disciples from the monasteries, but most were released, it said.
Only 109 monks and nine other men are still being questioned, it said.
A government official met senior Buddhist monks Friday in Yangon, the country’s main city, and asked them to “expose four monks who are at large,” the report said.
The visit aimed to show ordinary people that the ruling generals still had high regard for the Buddhist clergy, despite targeting monks in the crackdown.
Life in Yangon was slowly returning to normal but security remained tight downtown.
Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962.
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