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Burma rallies draw threat.




		Burma rallies draw threat
		*************************

	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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