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Reuters-Yangon forced to quiet on 9



Reply-To: "TIN KYI" <tinkyi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Reuters-Yangon forced to quiet on 9/9/99, protests abroad 

FOCUS-Yangon quiet on 9/9/99, protests abroad
08:25 a.m. Sep 09, 1999 Eastern
By Aung Hla Tun

YANGON, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Myanmar's military rulers deployed extra police,
including anti-riot units, in Yangon on Thursday as part of a nationwide
security clampdown to prevent a threatened uprising called by exiled
dissidents.

Amid the tight security and heavy rain for much of the day, there were no
signs in Myanmar of the street protests and general strikes urged by the
dissidents for September 9, 1999.

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

Myanmar 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 Myanmar embassy in Canberra where they attempted to rip down
the national flag. In Melbourne, about 90 people, mostly Myanmar 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
burnt the Myanmar flag. And on the Thai side of the Moei River frontier
about 200 exiles shouted slogans at stony faced Myanmar soldiers on the
other bank.

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

``We are gathering here because we think not many people can make protests
in Rangoon (Yangon) 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 Yangon and in the northern city of Meiktila, but these could not
be independently confirmed.

A government spokesman told Reuters: ``The whole country is peaceful and
stable.''

``I do hope anti-government quarters...come to realise that the overwhelming
majority of people in Myanmar want peace stability and development, not
chaos and anarchy.''

Yangon 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. But traffic was lighter than
usual and the streets were almost deserted of shoppers and the usual
pavement hawkers.

Dozens of extra police including some riot units were deployed at strategic
points, including the U.S. embassy and the Sule Pagoda, focal points during
1988 uprising.

They shut the road running past the headquarters 1991 Nobel Peace laureate
Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD, which had planned to distribute rice to the poor.

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

Those arrested included two British activists, one of whom was jailed for 17
years last week.

Troops killed thousands to crush the 1988 uprising, creating a climate of
fear that still survives. Diplomats said they doubt if ordinary people would
risk the ``severe'' government reponse threatenedd against renewed unrest.

``I think people are too scared,'' said one diplomat.

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 a
``numerically obsessed'' campaign.

ABSDF general secretary Aung Thu Nyein said it would go on.

``It is not really an uprising, but the people have responded. I am not
disappointed. I am really confident and we will continue our action because
we believe it is the right time to act.''


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