Burmese junta arrest 48 on uprising anniversary eve

Burma's junta have arrested 48 activists during a protest march marking 20 years since the army crushed a pro-democracy uprising, killing 3,000 people.

Last Updated: 3:26AM BST 09 Aug 2008

Demonstrators outside the Chinese embassy in London commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Burmese uprising which left 3,000 people dead on August 8th 1988 Photo: EPA
Police and militia have staged a show of force in Burma on the eve of the 20th anniversary of a major uprising which left 3,000 civilians dead.
The demonstrators, mainly young men in T-shirts bearing the numbers 8-8-88 - a reference to the August 8, 1988 nationwide revolt - staged a silent walk through the northwest town of Taunggok before being stopped by a police barricade.
"They were all picked up and are being questioned at the moment," Ko Thein Naing, a local official from the opposition National League for Democracy.
Hundreds of police and pro-government militia deployed near the landmarks in the capital Rangoon.
Buddhist monasteries, which were the focal point of pro-democracy protests by monks last year, were being closely monitored.
The military rulers fear a repeat of the 1988 demonstrations which lasted six weeks and saw hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets.
The protests saw the rise of Aung San Suu Kyi to the forefront of the country's pro-democracy movement.
Last night, additional barriers and a fire engine were stationed outside the home of the Nobel laureate, who has been under house arrest for more than 11 of the past 18 years.
Nyan Win, a spokesman for the National League for Democracy party, said the anniversary marked "an important historical turning point".
The presence of troops on the streets was the only sign of the anniversary inside a country where the population is still struggling to survive in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis which killed at least 130,000 people in May. But protests flared outside Burmese embassies in other Asian capitals.
In Bangkok, democracy activists demonstrated outside the Chinese embassy, accusing China of supporting the Burmese generals.
"We are here because China is the main supporter of the military regime," said Kyaw Lin Oo, an activist. "We want the Chinese government to understand the actual cost of their support to the people inside of Burma."
But in Rangoon, Min Aung, a dissident, said little could be achieved by protests which once threatened to topple the regime.
"I've totally lost hope that change will come through mass protests," he said. "It's difficult to organise protests now because most of the leaders are in jail or in hiding."
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who met Burmese Prime Minister Thein Sein in Beijing ahead of the Olympic Games, said he hoped Myanmar could sort out its problems "through democratic negotiation", China's official Xinhua news agency said.
"China will continue to follow a good-neighbourly policy towards Myanmar, and work with the international community to help Myanmar overcome difficulties," Xinhua quoted Mr Wen as saying.