Thousands of Youths Hold Protest March in Burma

Thousands of young people marched through Burma’s capital today chanting anti-government slogans and singing the national anthem, diplomats said. Students had called for a nationwide general strike.

Japan’s Kyodo News Agency reported that 30,000 people took part in protests in Rangoon and more than 10,000 students, Buddhist monks and others staged demonstrations in Mandalay, Burma’s second-largest city.

No violence was reported in what appeared to be the largest protest in Burma since democracy was overthrown 26 years ago.

“You couldn’t see the end of (the crowd),” said Georgina Allen, a 22-year-old British student who today returned to Bangkok from Rangoon. She said she saw “solid flanks” of unarmed demonstrators clenching their fists, cheering and clapping their hands as they marched along a main street in Rangoon.

“We’re going for democracy! We’re fighting for democracy!” she quoted one student as saying.

Allen said some Burmese students told her: “We want a socialist government. We hate the president. He’s an evil man.”

Students have been at the forefront of protests against the nation’s new hard-line leader, Sein Lwin. They blame him for ordering the suppression of demonstrations in Rangoon last March and June in which more than 100 people were killed.

The extent of the strike was not immediately clear.