8:8:88

Troops on standby in Burma for massacre anniversary
By Nick Meo
02 Aug 2008

Thousands of heavily-armed Burmese security forces have been moved to the outskirts of Rangoon days before the twentieth anniversary of an uprising which came close to bringing down the military regime.

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Monks demonstrate against the government prior to the 1988 massacre
Photo: GETTY

The regime appears determined to stop any attempt to mark the date, which with four eights - 8.8.88 - is of magical importance in Burma's calendar and of huge significance to protesters who two decades on are still trying to bring down a military government in power under a different dictator.

On 8th August 1988 Burmese soldiers are believed to have shot, suffocated and drowned more than 3,000 protesters after weeks of anti-government demonstrations.

In recent weeks protest leaders who were still on the run have been arrested and additional military units have been moved into the city, Burma's largest.

A Western diplomat in Rangoon said: "Truckloads of heavily armed police and soldiers are on the city outskirts. They are keeping large numbers of security personnel inside the city, out of sight. If they see a single protester in the street he will be picked up in minutes."

Rangoon is seething with frustration after last year's failed protests, which were led by monks. The government's callous handling of the cyclone in May which killed at least 140,000 people has increased popular anger.

Some now talk about taking up arms against the government after the failure of last year's non-violent protests.

A group of young men in a Rangoon bar spoke openly about wanting to attack the army. "If we could find guns, we would do it," said one English-speaking teenager. "I marched last year, we were shot at and we had nothing to shoot back with."

Western embassies have warned their citizens about the risk of bombs in Rangoon after a series of attacks in the city in recent weeks including one last month which killed a government militiaman. Many Burmese believe bombs are set off by the government to justify repression, but there also ethnic-based rebels who continue to fight a low-key guerrilla war which has dragged on for decades in Burma's jungle borderlands. After the 1988 uprising student protesters and guerrillas joined forces.

Sources in Rangoon described growing levels of anger with the military regime.

The diplomat said: "I wouldn't be surprised if people turned to violence. Levels of frustration are such that people feel they don't have any alternative.

"Security may be too high for mass protests this week, but the situation is increasingly bad and Burma is becoming more unstable. This country is crumbling economically."

The return of popular protest is not the only worry for the government. Ethnic rebel groups are attempting to bring charges against Burma's leaders for crimes against humanity, encouraged by the International Criminal Court's recent indictment of Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, for genocide.

The notoriously superstitious generals also fear a prophecy which has been enthusiastically recounted by the ordinary Burmese who must suffer their misrule. Since last year astrologers have been warning that the new capital, Naypidaw, would fill with piles of bones after a fire in Mandalay and the disappearance of Rangoon's trees.

A shopping centre in Mandalay burned down earlier this year, and many of the city's trees were felled by the cyclone in May. Burmese gossips claim that since then the Army has bought thousands of animal bones from butchers and piled them in the streets of Naypidaw - a city closed to most outsiders - in an attempt to fool the spirits believed by Burmese to enact prophecies.

telegraph.co.uk


Background :

Burma Watch International - Khin - The Memory of 8-8-88 Will Live On

8888 Uprising - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia