Burma thwarts uprising plan

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Burma thwarts uprising plan 

By Aung Hla Tun, Reuters, 09/10/99 


ANGOON - Burma's military rulers deployed extra police, including anti-riot
units, yesterday as part of a security crackdown to prevent an uprising
threatened by exiled dissidents.


Amid tight security, and amid a heavy rain that fell much of the day, there
were no signs in Burma of the street protests and general strikes urged by
the dissidents for Sept. 9, 1999.


The protests had been planned as a repeat of a mass revolt in 1988 which was
crushed in a bloody reassertion of military power.


Burmese dissidents in several cities abroad staged noisy protests demanding
a transfer of power to the opposition National League for Democracy, winners
of the last election in 1990, which was never allowed to govern.


In Australia, about 50 protesters smashed fences and overpowered police to
break into the Burmese Embassy in Canberra where they attempted to rip down
the national flag. In Melbourne, about 90 people, mostly Burmese exiles
wearing red armbands, chanted and sang on the steps of Victoria's state
parliament.


Outside the embassy in Thailand, more than 400 exiles shouted slogans and
burned the flag of Myanmar, the name the military regime has given to Burma.
And on the Thai side of the Moei River frontier about 200 exiles shouted
slogans at stony faced Burmese soldiers on the other bank.


In Kuala Lumpur, about 50 Burmese dissidents and Malaysian activists staged
a peaceful protest for human rights in Burma.


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


The All Burma Students' Democratic Front, one of the exile groups that
called the uprising, claimed students staged small ''cat and mouse''
protests in Rangoon and in the northern city of Meiktila, but these could
not be confirmed.


''The whole country is peaceful and stable,'' a government spokesman said.


''I do hope antigovernment quarters ... come to realize that the
overwhelming majority of people in Burma want peace, stability and
development, not chaos and anarchy.''


Rangoon residents said the city was unusually quiet as many stayed home or
did not open their businesses for fear of trouble and because it was the
Buddhist sabbath. Schools, which have been hotbeds of dissent, were also
closed for the sabbath.


Despite a dissident call for a general strike, public transport appeared to
run normally and government offices opened. 


Dozens of extra police, including some riot units, were deployed at
strategic points, including the US Embassy and the Sule Pagoda, focal points
of the 1988 uprising.


Diplomats estimate that authorities have arrested over 100 people in the
past month to thwart the uprising call and imposed an unofficial night
curfew in provincial towns and parts of Rangoon.


This story ran on page A24 of the Boston Globe on 09/10/99. 
© Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.