Masses Rally Against 1-Party Rule in Burma

Hundreds of thousands of people rallied today in Burma to demand an end to authoritarian rule, and heavily armed soldiers stopped protesters from marching across the capital of Rangoon on the first day of a general strike, diplomats and news reports said.

In the northern city of Mandalay, hundreds of thousands of people, including housewives and children, filled the streets in response to student calls for a nationwide protest, Japan’s Kyodo News Service said.

Some protesters waved the fighting peacock flag used in the struggle for independence from Britain in the 1940s.

Many train and bus operators joined the strike, bringing public transportation to a halt, the report said.

In Rangoon, more than 20,000 demonstrators, including movie stars, Buddhist monks and lawyers, marched through the capital demanding an end to one-party rule in Burma, diplomats and witnesses said.

Direct Challenge

Protest leaders called for a nationwide general strike against the military-dominated government of the ruling Burma Socialist Program Party, but heavily armed troops behind barbed-wire barricades prevented the demonstrators from marching into the working-class areas of Rangoon where the mass protests began Aug. 8-12, witnesses said.

The demonstrations were a direct challenge to the new president and party leader, Maung Maung, who took power Friday to replace hard-line military leader Brig. Gen. Sein Lwin, forced out by the demonstrations after only 17 days in office.

There were scattered reports of shooting, but they could not be confirmed, and most of the demonstrations appeared peaceful.

“Whole areas of suburban Rangoon are sealed off, making it impossible for demonstrators to get in, or for groups to combine to form a mammoth crowd,” one witness said.