YANGON —

A Myanmar court has sentenced five members of the opposition National League for Democracy party who participated in a protest march last week to two and a half years in jail, the NLD said Saturday. The five were arrested on Aug. 8 for marking the anniversary of the 1988 pro-democracy uprising known as the ‘‘8-8-88 revolt,’’ an NLD source said. The five, wearing shirts printed with ‘‘8-8-88,’’ marched together with 43 other protesters along the streets of Taunggok, a small coastal town in Rakhine state, when the authorities arrested all of them. The 43 other protesters were released the next day, but the authorities charged the five with unlawful assembly and intentionally causing fear or alarm to the public, according to the same source.

On Aug. 8, 1988, hundreds of people are believed to have been killed when soldiers opened fire on nationwide protests demanding an end to the country’s 26-year-long military dictatorship. The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962.

Kyodo

3 Comments

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  rajakumar at 05:06 PM JST - 17th August

  8-8-88 March and O8O808 olympics uses 8, which means prosperity for chinese.

  In Myanmar which is deeply spiritual and buddhist,all prosperity materialism/symbol 8, is rejected, as buddha did.

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  Jyan_Bon at 02:35 AM JST - 18th August

  The "8-8-88" is the most memorable day in our country's struggle for democracy against the authoritarian, military dictatorship. After 26 years of military mismanagement, which turned the richest nation in S.E Asia into one of the poorest countries in the world, the student-lead uprising, participated by millions of people from all walks of life started on the 8-8-88. (One year before the Tienamin incident).For the 2 whole months, every city, towns and villages in Myanmar were filled with hundreds of thousands of demonstrators including angry army personnels ,demanding for democracy; only to be machine-gunned down by the present military rulers, killing at least 10,000 students, monks and workers in the cities/towns all over the country. Tens of thousands more fled into neighbouring countries. Ever since , we have been DENIED any kind, shape or form of "rights" endorsed in the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights" published by the UN for the member nations. Today, the struggle goes on despite of harsh, brutal punishments perpetrated by the junta against human rights activists and democracy campaigners in the country. There are more than 2000 political prisoners and Buddhist monks in Myanmar's jails today. Millions more have fled into Thai , India, China and Bangladesh.

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  PaukPhawGyi at 03:04 AM JST - 18th August

  These protesters were arrested on the 8-8-08 and sentenced to jail on the 15-08-08, (within one week). The most appauling restriction was only 20 minutes was given to find a lawyer to represent them, before taking them to court, and declaring the charges they will be facing. Because there was not enough time to find a lawyer in 20 minutes, the five young activists were sentenced without a legal representative at the court.

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