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SCMP-Junta closes sacred pagoda on



South China Morning Post
Thursday  August 27  1998

 
Junta closes sacred pagoda on anniversary of democracy speech 

REUTERS in Rangoon 
The military Government closed the country's most sacred Buddhist shrine
yesterday on the 10th anniversary of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's
maiden speech for democracy, witnesses said.

Security forces closed all entrances to the Shwedagon pagoda, a 100-metre
high golden stupa in the centre of Rangoon, and fenced off the surrounding
area, they said.

Diplomats claimed the aim was to prevent attempts to commemorate the 1988
uprising for democracy, which the country's military rulers crushed at a
cost of thousands of lives, according to independent estimates.

They said the official explanation for closing the legendary pagoda was
"special cleaning". Security policemen armed with batons were stationed at
each of its four main gates.

On August 26, 1988, about 700,000 people rallied at the pagoda to hear a
speech by Ms Aung San Suu Kyi.

Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, who had returned to Burma to nurse her dying mother
and had no political track record, called the democracy uprising the
country's "second struggle for independence".

Her National League for Democracy (NLD) won 1990's general elections by a
landslide, but the military ignored the results. It has since endured a
long campaign of arrests and intimidation, diplomats and dissidents have
said.

But in recent weeks the opposition has become increasingly assertive and
last week vowed to call its own "people's parliament" after the military
ignored a demand to do so.

On Tuesday, authorities stationed riot police around the capital to guard
against a repeat of Monday's protests by university students, the first
such street demonstrations in more than a year.

The protests came the same day as Ms Aung San Suu Kyi ended a 13-day
roadside protest against restrictions on her movements.

Diplomats said the NLD was likely to wait for her recovery - after her
exhausting stand-off - before proceeding with its pledge to call
parliament, something the Government said would be against the law.