Referendum: junta preparing crackdown with Beijing’s help - Burma
5/4/08
Anti-riot trucks from China are arriving in the outskirts Yangon where volunteers are being train on how “to beat and disperse” demonstrators. In the meantime in Insein Prison guards are putting pressure on inmates to vote yes in the upcoming referendum whilst on the outside pro-democracy activists are increasingly being harassed and assaulted. Myanmar is indeed preparing itself for next month’s referendum and this is how the ruling military junta is organising the process designed to sanction its draft constitution. But a vast No campaign is also underway involving many dissident groups both inside and outside the country. Still theirs is an uphill battle, limited as it is, by the many measures taken by the military to prevent and eventually crack down on any form of civil protest during the campaign.