By Niluksi Koswanage
Hundreds of protesters in Japan and Malaysia denounced Myanmar's military junta for staging a constitutional referendum on Saturday, just a week after Cyclone Nargis devastated the country.
About 500 people, mostly wearing red T-shirts emblazoned with the word "No", gathered outside the Myanmar embassy in Kuala Lumpur, many silently murmuring prayers.
"The military has been pointing the gun at our people for too long, they cannot take pity with this cyclone," said Than Tun Aung, a refugee who led the protest. "People are dying and they still want to go on with this artificial democracy."
Some vented their anger by holding up signs saying "Junta, get out" and "Cyclone Nargis and junta are killers".
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Hundreds of protesters also took to the streets of Tokyo, shouting anti-government slogans and carrying banners which read "SOS Burma" and "Burma no need killer Than Shwe", referring to the junta supremo.
The protestors stood outside the Myanmar embassy and demanded that the military rulers postpone the referendum.
"They are thinking for themselves, not for the people," said Maung Min Nyo, director of the Burma Office in Japan.
"We . . . are very angry and demand the military junta assist the people as quickly as they can and postpone their referendum."
Even before Cyclone Nargis, groups opposed to military rule and foreign governments, led by the United States, had denounced the constitution and poll as an attempt by the military to legitimise its 46-year grip on power.
State-run TV has repeatedly told citizens it was their "patriotic duty" to approve the new constitution that enshrines a dominant role for the military, which has ruled the country of 53 million since a 1962 coup.
More than a week after Nargis swept up the Irrawaddy Delta, packing 190km/h winds that whipped up a wall of sea-water pulverising everything in its path, aid was barely reaching the 1,5-million increasingly desperate survivors.
Many of the protesters in Tokyo and Kuala Lumpur were refugees from Myanmar.
"I lost my country when I came to Malaysia, now I have also lost my sister and two brothers. I don't know where they are," said Richard, a food stall helper in Kuala Lumpur.
"All I can do is wait outside the embassy and let them know how I feel." - Reuters
- This article was originally published on page 6 of Tribune on May 11, 2008
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