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Burma rallies draw threat.
Burma rallies draw threat
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In an ominous warning to student protesters and other opponents
of the military regime, one of Burma's top generals has vowed to
annihilate anyone disruption his government's work.
General Tin Oo's remarks were carried today in state-run media
after six days of protests in Rangoon and Mandalay.
Thousands of students, demanding an end to police brutality, the
right to form a student union and other freedoms, have staged the most
serious show of civil dissent since the nationwide democracy uprising of
1988, which was also sparked by student protests.
The protests have diminished during the past two days as police
and intelligence agents have sealed off universities and other rallying
points such as the 1000-year-old Sule Pagoda in Rangoon's city centre.
Schools remained closed for a fourth straigh day today, and the
democracy leader Ms Aung San Suu Kyi remained confined to her home by the
military.
General Tin Oo is one of the four most powerful figures in the
junta that seized power by violently crushing the 1988 uprising.
The Government would "never allow the recurrence of the 1988
disturbances and would annihilate any internal elements who are trying to
disrupt the country", he said.
General Tin Oo has also threatened to annihilate Ms Suu Kyi and
her allies in the past. In his most recent speech he again alluded to Ms
Suu Kyi.
General Tin Oo blamed the protests on "internal axe handles under
the influence of external elements who do not wish to see the country
prosper.
Military men frequently refer to Ms Suu Kyi and her followers as
axe handles of imperialists and say she is a puppet of neo-colonialists
such as the United States and Britain.
Burma was a British colony until 1947, when Ms Suu Kyi's father,
General Aung San, who was assassinated in 1947, began his career as a
student leader, and students have carried his portrait in recent protests.
[AP, Rangoon, 12 December].
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