AFP-Students spill blood to mark My

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Subject: AFP-Students spill blood to mark Myanmar poll anniversary

Thailand-Myanmar
   Students spill blood to mark Myanmar poll anniversary
   =  =

   BANGKOK, May 27 (AFP) - Exiled students slashed their arms with knives
and
soaked Myanmar flags with blood Thursday outside Yangon's embassy here in
protest at the junta's refusal to cede power to opposition democrats.
   More than 200 exiled students and Buddhist monks staged the protest on
the
ninth anniversary of Myanmar's 1990 election which Aung San Suu Kyi's
National
League for Democracy won by a landslide.
   Three students cut themselves and spilled their blood over Myanmar flags
before setting them alight, police said.
   The crowd included refugees of several of Myanmar's many ethnic groups,
including Mons and Karens.
   Protestors called on Myanmar's military government to "immediately
transfer
political power to the parliament," elected in 1990 which has not been
allowed
to meet.
   They also called on the government to release all political prisoners.
   Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD took 392 of the 485 seats on offer in the national
elections on May 27 1990.
   The Nobel laureate issued a call last year for a meeting of the
parliament,
prompting a government crackdown on NLD members.
   Sources in Myanmar have said only 90 of the NLD MPs are still active in
the
party. The rest have either died, are in jail or have distanced themselves
from the NLD.
   NLD leaders say the desertions are the result of coercion by military
intelligence, while the government says rank and file members are
disenchanted
with the party leadership.
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