Eighteen foreign activists were detained at Rangoon airport yesterday after handing out leaflets calling on the people of Burma to remember a massacre of opposition supporters 10 years ago. Thousands of red leaflets in Burmese and English were distributed earlier yesterday at eight points in the capital, including the landmark Shwedagon Pagoda, whose massive golden spire dominates the city. Most of those detained were Asian but they were believed to include a small number of westerners.
Those detained were taken to an unknown destination. It was unclear how long the activists were held or whether they were later released.
Pro-democracy supporters handing out the leaflets said they were from by the Alternative ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) Network, an umbrella body of groups supporting Burma's democracy movement from neighbouring Asian countries.
Neither officials at the network's headquarters in Bangkok nor government spokesmen were available for immediate comment.
The leaflets referred to 8888 - August 8th, 1988 - which was the start of an uprising of pro-democracy activists calling for the end of military rule.
Soldiers opened fire on a demonstration on the steps of Rangoon city hall on that day, killing many civilians.
Opposition supporters say thousands of people were killed in the unrest that followed the uprising. The military government says the death toll was only a few dozen.
"We are your friends from around the world. We have not forgotten you. We support your hopes for human rights and democracy," said the leaflets.
"8888 - Don't forget - Don't give up," they added.
Meanwhile, the military renewed its attacks on the opposition leader, Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, yesterday, with commentaries in two newspapers. In an apparent reference to a television interview with Ms Suu Kyi last week, the Myanma Ahlin and Kyemon newspapers warned the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner not to destabilise the country.
"The `Democracy Princess' is almost sure to face the `Four Desires of the People' which have been deeply rooted among the hearts of the entire Myanmar [Burma] people, no matter how she is trying to deceive by making appeals to the people," they said.
The `Four Desires of the People' is a government slogan calling for opposition to external forces, traitors, foreign interference and `internal destructive elements'.
Ms Suu Kyi, daughter of Burma's national hero and founding father Aung San, said last week she would not be intimidated by the military and promised to bring democracy to Burma.
Tension between Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) and the military has risen in recent weeks. The NLD has set a deadline for the government to convene a parliament by August 21st, made up of members elected at polls in May 1990. The NLD won that election with 80 per cent of the vote, but the result was ignored by the military.
Saturday's anniversary of the 1988 crackdown passed off peacefully, with residents reporting Rangoon quieter than normal as many people stayed off the streets for fear of trouble.
Meanwhile, a foreign pro-democracy activist, Mr James Mawdsley, was released from prison and deported on August 6th. Mr Mawdsley, who holds British and Australian passports, was arrested in September 1997 after chaining himself to a fence in central Rangoon and shouting anti-government slogans. He was sentenced to five years in jail.
An anti-junta protest by exiled Burma pro-democracy activists entered its fifth day outside Rangoon's embassy in Bangkok yesterday, with the demonstrators refusing police requests to disperse. "They keep telling us to leave but we are staying," said one of the protest leaders, Mr Kyaw Mint.
"We will stay until at least August 22th and will see what happens then," he added, referring to the deadline set by the NLD to convene parliament or face unspecified consequences.
The vigil has steadily grown from just a handful of protestors to some 250 who rallied on Saturday on the 10th anniversary of the military crackdown.