Frightened Myanmar protesters stay away for anniversary

Photo: AFP
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/080926/afp/080926080744asiapacificnews.html

Friday September 26, 4:07 PM

YANGON (AFP) - Armed police in trucks patrolled Myanmar's main city on Friday as frightened protesters stayed home on the anniversary of last year's brutal military crackdown on mass anti-government protests.

Few worshippers turned out to pray at the famous Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, a rallying point for the protests that saw thousands of people led by Buddhist monks march against the military junta in the biggest uprising since 1988.

A spokesman for Myanmar's pro-democracy party said people were too scared to take to the streets this year to commemorate the uprising, amid tightened security over the past month in the run-up to the anniversary.

"My feeling on the anniversary is that I saw people completely show their desire last year, but because of the tight security this year people cannot demonstrate like this," National League of Democracy's (NLD) Nyan Win told AFP.


A small bomb injured seven people on Thursday and another was defused in front of Yangon's City Hall, another venue of last year's protests, state media and police reported.

"People are frightened now because of the bomb blast yesterday. I do not think protests like last year will happen again because of the security," a taxi driver said.

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The protests began sporadically in August 2007 over a hike in fuel prices, and slowly escalated, with 100,000 people led by the revered monks eventually staging what was dubbed the "Saffron Revolution," because of the colour of their robes.

The military regime finally launched a crackdown on September 26, opening fire on the crowds, killing 31 people according to the United Nations, including one Japanese journalist who was shot at close range.

Another 74 people remain missing and thousands more were arrested.

Security has been tightened around Yangon, with army trucks and police posted at intersections across the city and night patrols outside monasteries.

On Friday, about ten armed police trucks carrying about 200 police circled near the Shwedagon Pagoda's eastern gate.

"People are frightened. I'm praying that nothing will happen," a shopkeeper near the pagoda said.

Political repression by the junta has also increased in the past year and international diplomacy has failed to bring about change, according to the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW).

While the United Nations Special Advisor on Myanmar, Ibrahim Gambari, has visited the country four times, he has won only "fruitless dialogue," it said.

On Tuesday, Myanmar authorities freed seven political prisoners, members of the NLD, including the well-known journalist Win Tin, 79, who had been imprisoned since 1989.

But a day later, one activist was rearrested according to Myanmar exiles in Thailand. "I also heard he was rearrested. We still do not know the reason," Nyan Win also said.

HRW said 39 political arrests had been made in August and September alone.

On Thursday, the national police chief, Khin Yee, met for the first time with six members of the NLD's executive committee to ask for a retraction of their latest statement, Nyan Win said, adding that the request was refused.

The statement called for a review of the junta's new constitution which was issued after a referendum held in May.

Myanmar's junta, which has ruled the country since 1962, was criticised for holding the referendum just days after a cyclone left 138,000 people dead or missing across the country.

Pro-democracy activists said the vote was neither free nor fair, but the military says the new constitution has paved the way for multi-party elections to be held in 2010.

The rules render Nobel prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi ineligible to stand for election. Her NLD party won elections in 1990 but was never allowed to take power.