SCMP : Junta doubles guard on freed

[hlaing@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

South China Morning Post
Saturday  August 8  1998


Junta doubles guard on freedom leader 

WILLIAM BARNES in Bangkok 
The junta yesterday doubled the guard around opposition leader Aung San Suu
Kyi.

The move was neatly symbolic of the regime's response when Burmese people
took to the streets 10 years ago today to demand democracy.

Ms Aung San Suu Kyi had earlier asked the guards to leave her compound.

The junta's response was more repression - albeit the guards were later
seen packing away equipment and preparing to withdraw to a position outside
the compound.

A decade ago today the streets were flooded with Burmese demanding that the
military release its iron grip on the country.

The reply was ugly in the extreme: unarmed crowds were mowed down by
machinegun-toting soldiers from the provinces who had been told they were
killing communists.

Yesterday exiled opposition groups were unanimous in warning the regime
that it would be infinitely more difficult for it to clean the streets by
washing them in blood a second time.

The National Coalition Government of Burma, a government in exile, called
on the people of Burma to support "on a nationwide scale" the National
League for Democracy - whose leader is Ms Aung San Suu Kyi - in its demand
for parliament to reconvene by August 21.

The National Council of the Union of Burma, a coalition of opposition
groups and ethnic rebels, said yesterday that where the people once feared
the military, now "it is for the military dictators to cravenly fear the
people".

The council warned "people from all walks of life" to be on the alert to
join forces with Ms Aung San Suu Kyi "for the historic struggle to
completely wipe out the State Peace and Development Council military
dictatorship".

Ten years ago the country had been electrified to hear on the BBC World
Service that a general strike had been called for the auspiciously chosen
date, 8-8-88.

All across the country workers downed tools, clerks left offices and shops
closed as people joined the students who had been protesting off and on for
weeks against the regime's brutality.

The crowds - one of the biggest gathered in front of Rangoon City Hall -
were nervous but exhilarated at being free to show their loathing for a
hated regime.

"It was an incredible time. We were so optimistic, so full of life.
Everyone felt so good that at last we were doing something," said an
opposition activist in exile.

The military's response to the general strike was its most barbarous yet.
Soldiers fired mercilessly, repeatedly into the crowds.

For once the description "bloodbath" was not hyperbole.

Doctors in Rangoon said at least 3,000 died in the capital. State radio
claimed "only" 112 had died.

No city was spared. Even minor towns where the people had run their own
protest marches experienced massacres.

In Bassein, the town which Ms Aung San Suu Kyi was trying to reach during
her six-day car sit-in, armoured cars broke up a 5,000-strong
demonstration, killing 30 people, including children.

Only the brave will dare protest in Burma today. But across the globe
members of the huge Burmese diaspora will remember.