YANGON, Nov 29, 2007 (AFP) - Military-ruled Myanmar on Thursday ordered the closure of a Yangon monastery where four monks had been arrested during a crackdown on pro-democracy protests in September, a senior monk told AFP.
The Maggin monastery in the eastern part of Yangon was known as a sanctuary for people with AIDS who came from upcountry in search of treatment.
No guests had been allowed to stay there since the military raided the monastery and arrested the abbot Eidaka along with three monks and four laypeople on September 27, said 83-year-old monk Nandiya.
Nandiya said he had also been arrested but was released after spending 13 days in Myanmar's notorious Insein prison.
Since then he has stayed at the monastery along with another monk and six young novices, but the military has now ordered them all to leave, he told AFP.
"All they said is that we have to leave the monastery before 4:00 pm (0930 GMT) this afternoon, even though we did nothing wrong", Nandiya said as he packed up his belongings.
"They said they have received no orders on where we could find a place to live", said Nandiya.
"Nobody wants to accept an old monk like me," he added.
Officials from the Ministry of Religious Affairs and municipal authorities came to the monastery early Thursday to deliver the order, he said.
Witnesses said the authorities enforced the deadline and locked up the monastery shortly after the deadline passed.
Nandiya is the father of the monastery's abbot Eidaka, who has already spent five years in prison over his involvement in a 1990 protest movement by Buddhist monks.
People in the surrounding neighbourhood and a group of HIV activists came out to help the monks clear out the monastery and to search for new housing for them.
The monastery was an important part of the AIDS outreach programme run by the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), the party headed by detained Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.
The monastery provided housing and counselling for people with HIV, especially people who came to the city from rural areas in hope receiving treatment in Yangon.
"These monks looked after me when I was helpless, but now I don't know how to help them. I can only help packing as they are forced out," said one HIV carrier who came to the monastery when he heard about the order.
At least 15 people died and 3,000 were jailed when the military and police broke up the September protests, which saw Buddhist monks lead 100,000 people in the streets of Yangon on successive days.
Amnesty International says it believes up to 700 people remain behind bars, and has denounced the ongoing arrests of dissidents.
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