Burmese target Canberra embassy

Burmese target Canberra embassy

BY MARCUS PABIAN

CANBERRA — Fifty federal police were unable to prevent 200 Burmese pro-democracy demonstrators, chanting "Eliminate dictatorship", from staging a sit-in outside the Burmese government's embassy here on May 25.

The high-spirited demonstration was part of actions around the globe on what the National Monks Union of Burma designated as "D-Day", their deadline for the military regime to enter dialogue with opposition forces.

The president of the monks union, speaking by mobile phone direct from Burma, told those present that the regime's refusal to start dialogue meant the country's Buddhist monks would turn their monasteries into anti-regime strike centres and would stage a democracy march from the northern city of Mandalay to the capital of Rangoon.

The monks were prepared to make great sacrifices to end military rule, the monks' leader said.

Protest organiser Maung Maung Than urged greater support from people around the world for the Burmese freedom struggle. Representatives from the ACT's Trades and Labor Council, the Greens, Resistance and Sydney University Student Representative Council were all present at the action, alongside Burmese refugees from Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra.

From GLW issue 407