Press Release: Terry Evans

Burma: Renewed Protests Predicted

19 January

In a telephone press briefing from Rangoon this week, British ambassador Mark Canning condemned the Burmese generals for failing to address the "anger" that put tens of thousands of monks onto the streets of Rangoon and Mandalay last September. He predicted more anti-junta protests in Burma in the days to come. The ambassador highlighted the fact that a group of around 50 people protested this week in Rangoon, despite the inherent risks to their personal safety.

"Going forward we are going to see more demonstrations. The underlying grievances have not been addressed." Canning noted that the monks are back in both Rangoon and Mandalay after many mysteriously disappeared last September during the brutal crackdown on demonstrators by the military.

"The numbers we are seeing are still way down on what you would have seen five months ago. A significant number may have been de-robed and sent packing back to rural villages."

The British Foreign Office minister Meg Munn also spoke at the briefing, saying the British prime minister Gordon Brown would be discussing Burma with Chinese leaders on his visit this week.

"We believe that China has an important role to play," she said.

Over the past decade China has assisted the junta generals in a series of modernisation programs, helping to arm the Burmese military which has doubled in size over the past decade.

ENDS

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