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AP : Protest marks 10th anniversary



Protest marks 10th anniversary of Myanmar uprising

August 8, 1998
Web posted at: 6:02 a.m. EDT (1002 GMT) 

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- Chanting slogans and waving posters of Nobel
laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, more than 300 exiled students from Myanmar
protested Saturday in front of the country's embassy in Thailand for an end
to military rule. 

The protest -- which was expected to be mirrored in other countries hosting
Myanmar exiles -- marked the 10th anniversary of a nationwide
anti-government uprising. The army eventually crushed the unrest and
thousands are believed to have died. 

The anniversary comes as Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy are
building pressure on the government ahead of an Aug. 21 deadline demanding
they finally allow an opposition-dominated parliament elected in 1990 to
meet for the first time. 

"We see now that our leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, is moving more strongly than
ever before," said Gaw Minth, a coordinator of the Bangkok protest. "We
believe that she will do something if the request is ignored by the
military." 

The protesters, mostly students who fled their homeland, also known as
Burma, after the crackdown 10 years ago, held up placards reading: "We want
democracy." 

Protesters in Toyko carry pictures of Aung San Suu Kyi in front of the
Myanmar embassy   

'It is just painful'

Gaw Minth said that 70 people will remain at the sit-in until Aug. 21. If
parliament is not convened, a hunger strike will follow. 

Gaw Minth is among thousands exiled students who left home to seek refuge
in Thailand when he was 17. He wept as he recalled the killings he said he
saw in the capital, Yangon. 

"I saw two men in their early 40s got shot in their chests," Gaw Minth
said. "I could hear the guns shooting from every direction, but I don't
know until now if any of the people I know was killed." 

Ko Pauk, a spokesman for the All Burma Students Democratic Front, a group
of exiles that took up arms after the 1988 uprising, said that he had been
able to contact his family only three times in the past 10 years. 

"It is just painful, but we realize that staying somewhere else out of the
country, we can work better and safer," Ko Pauk said. 

Ko Pauk said he has been arrested and detained several times by Thai
police, and was once arrested, stripped and had 1,000 baht ($25)
confiscated while traveling on a train.