Myanmar activists mark 20th anniversary of crushed democracy

Aug 8, 2008, 7:32 GMT

Bangkok - Hundreds of Myanmar activists protested outside the Chinese and Myanmar embassies in Bangkok Friday, marking the 20th anniversary of a brutal army crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations in Yangon that left thousands dead.

The protestors, mindful that Friday also marks the opening ceremony for the Olympic Games in Beijing, used the anniversary of the 8-8-88 uprising to highlight China's role in supporting Myanmar's notoriously brutish military regime.

On August 8, 1988, thousands of pro-democracy protestors took to the streets in Yangon demanding the end of 26 years of military rule. Their demands were met with bullets and a bloodbath that left an estimated 3,000 dead.

Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962 when General Ne Win ended the country's brief fling with democracy with a coup that toppled elected Prime Minister U Nu.

The 8-8-88 event has often been compared with China's Tiananmen crackdown in June, 1989. Both countries are regularly criticized for their poor human rights records and refusal to introduce democratic reforms.

China shares a border with Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, and is one of its few allies in the international community.

'Today we are protesting outside the Chinese embassy because China is the main sponsor of the military government in Burma,' said Sann Aung, one of the organizers of the demonstration outside the Chinese embassy in Bangkok.

'China supports Burma with military hardware and provides diplomatic protection for the regime at the UN Security Council,' said Sann Aung, 53, a member of Myanmar's government in exile based along the Thai-Myanmar border.

The protestors, numbering about 300, shouted 'free Burma,' 'we want democracy,' and launched paper airplanes and balloons into the embassy compound that bore the message 'We Won't Forget 8-8-88.'

After protesting outside the Chinese embassy, the demonstration moved to the Myanmar embassy, where slogans were shouted and the paper airplane and balloon missiles were launched again.

'Twenty years on, the international community must realize that unconditional engagement, discreet diplomacy and ASEAN's so-called constructive engagement has failed,' said a joint statement signed by 63 Myanmar dissident groups under the Burma Partnership.

Bangkok has been a hub for Myanmar pro-democracy activists since 1988, when thousands of Myanmar students and opposition figures fled their country in the wake of the 8-8-88 crackdown.

On Thursday, visiting US President George W. Bush used Bangkok to make a policy speech in which he promised to 'seek an end to tyranny in Burma,' and reiterated the call for Myanmar's regime to release opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi who has spent about 13 of the past 18 years under house arrest.

Bush also used Bangkok to lunch with nine well-known Myanmar activists.

Some of the activists urged Bush to use his trip to China to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympics to pressure Beijing on the Myanmar issue.

Bush reportedly said he would do so.

China is deemed a lynchpin for change in Myanmar, a country that virtually blocked itself off from the world between 1962 to 1988, and only reluctantly opened its doors to foreign investment and trade thereafter.

Myanmar has been the target of economic sanctions since the 1988 crackdown, cut off from aid from multilateral lenders such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank and most forms of bilateral aid.

China, by contrast, saw its trade with Myanmar expand to 2.06 billion dollars last year, and has announced plans to invest heavily in an overland pipeline that would take natural gas from Myanmar's offshore reserves to Yunnan province in southern China.

As one of the five permanent members on the UN security council, China has vetoed several measures directed against the regime.