18 November 2003

Preparing for 'National Day'

A few weeks before the 83rd National Day on 18 November, the "veteran politicians" group invited all "political colleagues" to come commemorate the event at "No 3, Parami Road in Mayangon Township, Rangoon."

The National League for Democracy (NLD), students, and democracy activists, had also arranged to celebrate the event in Rangoon and were expecting members from all over the country to join it.

The preparations for the celebrations were proceeding relatively without a hitch until a few days before the actual commemorative event when authorities started summoning people and monks and warning them against holding political rallies.

"We have learned about the National League for Democracy's (NLD) plan to hold political rallies and you are not to allow your place to be used for political purposes," SPDC officials warned the hosts.

The hosts reportedly told authorities that the NLD wanted to visit Pagodas, offer food to the monks, and to listen to the sermons of the monks to commemorate National Day and there was nothing political about the whole exercise as the NLD always commemorated the event every year.

SPDC officials particularly objected to the NLD members wearing traditional Burmese Pinni jacket and Kachin longgyi or sarong (generally recognized as NLD uniform) when they offer food to the monks and gather en masse at prearranged places.

NLD members insisted that they were not committing any crime by wearing traditional dresses and said they were determined to go ahead with the celebrations.

The D-Day

NLD youths numbering in the hundreds started rallying at Thwe Say Kan near the Shwedagon Pagoda at around 1000. Wearing their traditional NLD uniform – white collarless shirts, Pinni (orangey) jackets, and dark longgyis and sarongs -- they later marched in pairs, ascending the stairs of the Shwedagon Pagoda entering it from the Northern Entrance. They were joined by other NLD youths who had come to the Pagoda from other entrances. The youths then circled the Pagoda clockwise, offered flowers and lit candles at the "Tuesday Corner" (Aung San Suu Kyi was born on a Tuesday), and marched to the monument marking the 1920 Students Strike and "made pledges to continue the struggle until Burma attains democracy."

While the NLD youths were gathering at the monument, about 100 security personnel, military intelligence agents reporting with cellular phones, and Pagoda security people arrived with batons and started videotaping and photographing the scene.

The intelligence agents rudely told the youths to disperse, telling them that no more than five could gather together under the law, that the Pagoda was a place of worship and they could not assemble at that place wearing uniforms.

The students left in pairs, exited the Pagoda from the Northern Entrance, and marched on to Sasana Gonyi Monastery at Chauk Htat Gyi Pagoda where people along the way greeted them. Some followed the youths alongside under the watchful eyes of the security personnel who continued to videotape and photograph the youths.

At the monastery, Rangoon Division NLD executives welcomed the youths who joined the religious ceremony attended by hundreds of people who offered food alms and recited "freedom prayers" for the NLD leaders.

NewsDesk sources in Rangoon said the NLD youths were determined to continue acting en masse and wearing the NLD uniforms for three days.

"Our colleagues in Irrawaddy, Pegu, Tenasserim, Mandalay, and Magwe Divisions will be doing the same today. They have kept our leaders under detention and our offices closed for too long, and they have done nothing about the Tabayin incident. Although our activity today is not much, it empowers us, we are determined to step up our activities," said a youth leader.

The 'Veteran Politicians'

The National Day commemorative event hosted by the veteran politicians became a political venue for pro-democracy parties to call on the military regime to change its position with political parties, including the NLD, reading out statements directed at the regime.

The calls urged the generals "to release all political prisoners in jail as well as others under house arrest, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other NLD leaders" and "to begin a sincere dialogue on political reform" as it was "the only path to peace and national reconciliation" in the country.

In a joint statement the political veterans said, "We firmly believe that a tripartite dialogue involving the military, the NLD, and ethnic nationalities is the one and only way to peace and national reconciliation…We would like to remind the present leadership that procrastination and dragging its feet will only lead the country into further depths of poverty."

Elected NLD Members of Parliament and representatives of the ethnic nationality organizations and forces were also present at the event.

NLD MP U Thein Myint was critical of the fact that the NLD leadership was being detained and he called for their unconditional release. "We have traditionally held National Day commemorative ceremonies throughout the years but are unable to do so this year due to obvious reasons," he said.

The statement by the veteran politicians also noted that many years had passed since the 1990 elections won by the NLD and that "the people's pro-democracy ambitions remained unfulfilled."

Source: NCGUB, NCUB's PDC, AFP

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