Burma rulers warning on protests

By Steve Jackson
BBC News

The military government says it will not tolerate opposition protests

Burma's military rulers have issued an unusually strong threat to take action against opposition groups.

State television interrupted normal programmes to accuse the National League for Democracy of exploiting fuel price rises to instigate unrest.

It said effective action would be taken, although it gave no specific details.

A wave of protests in Burma began three weeks ago when the military government doubled fuel prices without warning.

Telling comparison

The statement likened the protests to an uprising in 1988 which was put down by the army with widespread loss of life.

That comparison is telling and shows that the military government is taking the latest protests very seriously.

These demonstrations, like those in 1988 have been led by students and Buddhist monks, but they have been smaller so far.

However, a prominent critic of the government in Burma, U Win Neug, has told the BBC he believes they will grow.

"This is the biggest demonstration we ever had since 1988 and obviously this is just the beginning and it's going on and it will accumulate and pick up speed and I believe that finally it will become much much stronger," he said.

The military government has other ideas though.

The latest warning promises "effective measures" to tackle the dissent. While it isn't clear what that means, the military certainly wants to avoid letting the protests escalate any further.

Amnesty International says more than 150 people have since been arrested.

By coming down hard on the opposition activists involved in the protests, it seems the military hopes to deter other people from joining in.