Myanmar protesters in Thailand urge India to act

Bangkok, Sep 27 (DPA) Dozens of protesters Thursday burned an effigy of Senior General Than Shwe – Myanmar’s military supremo – outside the Myanmar embassy to Bangkok, while calling on China and India to do more to stop the violence in Yangon.

“We want the Chinese and Indian governments to do something, especially the Indian,” said May Zi, a spokesman for the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB), Myanmar’s self-styled government in exile.


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“I think the Indian government should do better since they hail themselves as the largest democracy in the world and yet India is working very closely with Myanmar in killing its own people,” said May Zi.

About 40 protesters gathered outside the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok to condemn the regime’s crackdown on Buddhist monks and laymen followers in Yangon Wednesday.

Monks have been leading peaceful marches in Yangon since Sep 18 against the regime’s decision to hike fuel prices last month.

After the marches started to draw tens of thousands of participants, Myanmar’s junta put its foot down on Wednesday, dispatching riot police and troops to key protest sites to beat back the monks and end the rare show of dissent in the military dictatorship.

Myanmar’s state-run newspapers claimed Thursday that only one person was killed in Wednesday’s melee, although other sources said the death toll was five.

In a broadcast Wednesday night, Thailand’s outgoing army commander-in-chief General Sonthi Boonyarakalin opined that the Myanmar troops had shown “restraint” in quelling the mob of monks.

Sonthi heads the junta that has been guiding Thailand since the Sep 19, 2006, coup.

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