MARCHERS NEVER CHANT, "STABILITY!":

Myanmar monks chant democracy, troops move in (Reuters, 9/26/07)

Chanting “democracy, democracy”, thousands of monks marched through the heart of Myanmar’s main city on Tuesday in defiance of a threat by the ruling generals to send in troops to end the biggest anti-junta protests in 20 years.

“The streets are lined with people clapping and cheering them on,” a witness said. There were no signs of soldiers around the Sule pagoda in central Yangon, the destination of a week of marches by the deeply revered maroon-robed monks.

However, one Yangon-based diplomat said five army trucks, each capable of carrying up to 50 soldiers, lurked less than a kilometre away from the pagoda and City Hall next door. That area was the scene of the worst bloodshed during a crackdown on nationwide pro-democracy protests in 1988 in which up to 3,000 people are thought to have been killed.

“The people are not afraid,” another witness said. “They are helping the monks and offering them drinking water.”