Reuters: YANGON BRACES, BUT QUIET O

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Subject: Reuters: YANGON BRACES, BUT QUIET ON "FOUR NINES DAY"

YANGON BRACES, BUT QUIET ON "FOUR NINES DAY"

By Aung Hla Tun 

YANGON, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Myanmar's government deployed extra police,
including riot-control units, in the capital Yangon on Thursday, bracing
for an uprising called by exiled dissidents for the numerically significant
"four nines day". 

Dissidents chose September 9, 1999 for a repeat of a mass uprising 11 years
ago that shook authoritarian rule. 

Residents said the city was unusually quiet as many people stayed at home
or did not open their businesses for fear of trouble and because of it was
the Buddhist sabbath on Thursday. 

Public transport appeared to run normally, although traffic was lighter
than usual. Schools were closed for the sabbath. 

Dozens of extra police were deployed at strategic points in Yangon,
including some "Lon Htein" riot units. They were stationed near the U.S.
embassy and the city's Sule Pagoda, focal points for protests during the
mass uprising in 1988. 

Police shut the road running past the headquarters of the main opposition
party, the National League for Democracy led by 1991 Nobel Peace laureate
Aung San Suu Kyi, which had planned to distribute rice to the poor. 

There were no signs of the street protests which the dissidents in exile
had called for. Eleven years ago, millions took to the streets demanding an
end to authoritarian rule. 

Troops killed thousands to crush that uprising, creating a climate of fear
that still survives. Diplomats and other political analysts doubt ordinary
people would be willing to risk the "severe" response the government has
vowed against unrest. 

In neighbouring Thailand more than 400 dissidents from Myanmar, including
members of ethnic minority groups, staged a noisy protest outside the
Myanmar embassy. They burned a Myanmar flag at nine minutes past nine in
the morning. 

"We are gathering here because we think not many people can make protests
in Rangoon (Yangon) because there are too many troops," said one of the
protesters, Yai Min Aung. "The fact we are here is a clear indication that
the Burmese people want democracy." 

In Australia, about 50 protesters smashed fenes and overpowered police to
break into the Myanmar embassy where they attempted to rip down the
national flag. 

Diplomats in Yangon estimate the authorities have arrested more than 100
people in the city and others in the provinces in the past month to thwart
the uprising call. They include two British activists, one of whom received
a 17-year jail term last week. 

Diplomats say the authorities have also imposed an unofficial night curfew
in provincial towns and parts of Yangon. 

"Everyone knows today is a special day," said one diplomat. 

"But we weren't expecting anything to happen today because I think people
are too scared and because this movement, if it is a movement, is too
disorganised because the government has too many military intelligence out
there who can stop things." 
In addition, universities that were the centres of dissent in 1988, have
been closed for much of the past decade. 

"Were the universities still open, there would be the possibility for the
students to gather there," the diplomat said. 

Dissidents in exile say the government has arrested more than 500 people to
contain their campaign and have called the disruption caused to the
security apparatus a victory of sorts. 

The government has reported fewer than 40 arrests and ridiculed the
"numerically obsessed" campaign. But an editorial in the Bangkok Post
newspaper said dissidents had succeeded in making the ruling military
council "jump at shadows". 
"It has every reason to be wary of 9-9-99..." it said. 

"With a stranglehold on the media, universities closed, communities
infested with junta eavesdroppers and severe restrictions on public
assembly, the people of Burma needed and found a way to put those numbers
to good effect." 


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THE BURMA INFO/CCN
SOURCE: WWW.REUTER.COM
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