The military authorities in Burma have imposed tight security in the main city, Rangoon, on the 20th anniversary of a major uprising.

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Activists outside Burma are marking the anniversary with demonstrations.

The 1988 protests drew hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets, but ended with a violent clampdown and the deaths of at least 3,000 civilians.

The date 8 August 1988 was significant for the superstitious Burmese, and marked the start of six weeks of rallies against military rule.

Until the 8/8/88 protests, Aung San Suu Kyi was only known as the daughter of liberation hero Aung San, but her speech to the assembled protesters during the rallies propelled her to the centre of the pro-democracy movement.

Nyan Win, a spokesman for her National League for Democracy (NLD) party, told AFP news agency that the anniversary marked "an important historical turning point".

Anti-China protests

The only sign of the anniversary inside the country was the heavy military presence, with riot police posted at busy intersections, the former campus of Rangoon University and the famous Shwedagon Pagoda.

Additional barriers and a fire engine were also placed outside Aung San Suu Kyi's home.

Elsewhere in Asia, though, human rights groups and activists who fled in the aftermath of the 1988 protests held demonstrations outside Burmese embassies.

They also protested outside the Chinese embassy in Bangkok.

"We are here because China is the main supporter of the military regime," Kyaw Lin Oo, a Burmese activist, told reporters.

"We want the Chinese government to understand the actual cost of their support to the people inside of Burma," he added.

"As the world celebrates the opening of the Beijing Olympics, people should pause to remember the atrocities in Burma 20 years ago," added Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch.

In Rangoon, dissident Min Aung told the Associated Press: "I've totally lost hope that change will come through mass protests.

"It's difficult to organise protests now because most of the leaders are in jail or in hiding."

(BBC)

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