The Nation - Sporadic protests gree

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Subject: The Nation - Sporadic protests greet call for 9999 uprising

The Nation - Sep 10, 1999.
Headlines
Sporadic protests greet call for 9999 uprising

RANGOON -- Exiled Burmese in Australia and Thailand joined forces in
protesting against the Burmese junta, while the Burmese capital faced
sporadic ''hit-and-run'' protests despite the regime's deployment of riot
police to prevent potential outbreaks of political unrest.

According to Burmese dissident groups, a number of ''hit-and-run'' protests
were carried out just outside Rangoon. About 30 to 40 people took part in
each of the protests at Dagon, Okkalapa and Pazundung townships.

The largest demonstration was in the city of Meiktila in central Mandalay
Division where about 1,000 people took part in a demonstration. The number
of arrests could not be confirmed.

In Canberra, Australia, about 100 protesters broke into the Burmese Embassy
after smashing fences and overpowering police.

One police officer was injured when a clod of dirt was thrown into his eye
and another was kicked in the groin. Several police received minor cuts and
bruises in the skirmish.

The protest followed a worldwide call from exiled Burmese dissidents for an
uprising against the military junta in Rangoon on ''four nines'' day.

Sept 9, 1999, was chosen for its numerical significance after the first
uprising 11 years ago on Aug 8, 1988 in which thousands of pro-democracy
demonstrators were killed.

In Melbourne, about 90 people, mostly Burmese exiles with red armbands,
chanted and sang on the steps of Victoria's state parliament.

In Bangkok, about 400 Burmese dissidents staged noisy protests demanding a
transfer of power to the National League for Democracy (NLD), winner of the
May 1990 general elections which has never been allowed to govern.

They shouted slogans and burnt the Burmese flag at nine minutes past nine in
the morning.

''We are gathering here because we think not many people can protest in
Rangoon because there are too many troops,'' said Yai Min Aung, protesting
at the embassy in Bangkok.

On the Thai side of the Moei River about 200 exiles wearing red
pro-democracy head bands shouted slogans at stony-faced Burmese soldiers on
the other bank.

Customs and soldiers on the nearby Thai-Burma Friendship Bridge, which links
the towns of Mae Sot and Myawaddy, were conducting thorough body searches as
a security precaution, but tradesmen were still crossing the span.

Thai military units have stepped up security along the western border with
Burma, where over 100,000 refugees from Burma live in bamboo-shack camps
close to the frontier.

In Rangoon, the junta deployed extra police, including riot-control units,
bracing for an uprising called by exiled dissidents.

But there were no signs of the street protests the dissidents had called
for. Authorities shut the road running past the headquarters of 1991 Nobel
Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD, which had planned to distribute rice
to the poor.

Diplomats estimated that more than 100 people have been arrested in the past
month in Rangoon and in the provinces. An unofficial night curfew has been
imposed in provincial towns and parts of the capital.

''Everyone knows today is a special day. But we weren't expecting anything
to happen because I think people are too scared and because this movement,
if it is a movement, is too disorganised because the government has too many
military intelligence operatives out there who can stop things,'' said a
diplomat in Rangoon.

Burmese generals have vowed to ''annihilate'' any agitator and there is
little sign that the population of Burma is ready to risk a repeat of the
bloody clampdown 11 years ago, when an estimated 3,000 were gunned down.

High schools, which are the potential hotbed of anti-government action, were
closed for the Buddhist sabbath. Most universities have been shut since the
last major student protest in late 1996.

Meanwhile, the Burmese junta has postponed a visit by a senior United
Nations official which was aimed at encouraging political liberalisation in
the country.

The Rangoon-based source said Assistant Secretary-General Alvaro de Soto,
the UN's second-ranking official for political affairs, had been due in
Burma around the middle of this month.

''The mission has been postponed by the government. I wouldn't say
cancelled -- they want him to come at some later date,'' said the source,
who did not want to be identified, adding that no explanation had been given
for the decision.

The Rangoon government did not immediately respond to a request for comment
on the issue.

The Nation, Agencies