Dec 7, 2007 (DVB), Four monasteries in Pakokku, Magwe division, which received government food donations have passed the offerings on to the poor and refused to give blessings to the officials.

Monks from four lecturing monasteries in Pakokku , east, west, central and Bawde Mandi , said they wanted to show that they were continuing with their religious boycott against the regime.

A group of government officials led by the Magwe division Peace and Development Council chairman and the minister of electrical energy (2) visited the monasteries earlier this month to give offerings of rice to the monks.

The monastery head monks accepted the donations but would not give blessings to the officials in return.

One monk from Bawde Mandi monastery told DVB that they had passed on the offerings as a protest against the regime.

"We accepted the rice donation because it is not appropriate to reject an offering, but then later we donated the rice to poor people in the neighbourhood," he said.

"This is to show that we are still carrying on with this religious boycott of the authorities."

Another monastery sold the rice offered to them by officials and donated the money to a local hospital.

Reporting by Aye Nai