Burmese monk leader Ashin Kovida has escaped to Thailand

Thomas Fuller of the NY Times (via KyiMayKaung) reports that a leader of the protests has escaped to Thailand:

During a six-hour interview in this border town, the monk, Ashin Kovida, said he had been elected the leader of a group of 15 of his fellows and led daily protests in Yangon from Sept. 18 through Sept. 27, the day after the authorities began raiding monasteries.

He said he was inspired by the popular uprisings in Yugoslavia against the government of Slobodan Milosevic, videos of which were circulated by dissident groups in Myanmar.

Read the whole story. The tale Kovida tells of his role in organizing the protests and his subsequent escape from Burma is harrowing -- the stuff of which movies are made.