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YANGON (AFP) - Tens of thousands of people were taken early Saturday to a pro-government rally in Yangon in a show of strength by Myanmar's junta, as a UN envoy returned to Southeast Asia to pile pressure on the regime.
Under light rain, the military bused people into Yangon's main sports ground before dawn for a three-hour, early morning rally to hear officials glorify the military's plan to build what it calls a "discipline-flourishing" democracy.
The military has staged similar rallies around the country in recent weeks, but this one was the first major event in the nation's commercial hub since a deadly crackdown on anti-government protests last month.
Foreign media were barred from attending and the general public was also kept away as streets around the stadium were blocked.
Residents said that people were bused in from around the city, but that the crowd included many workers as well as government-backed groups.
"Every factory in the industrial zone had to send at least 50 people to attend," one resident told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The rally came as UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari headed back to Southeast Asia for a regional tour beginning in Bangkok to build pressure on the regime to reform.
Gambari is expected to prepare the ground for a return visit to Myanmar following his mission here last month, when he was allowed to meet with both junta chief Than Shwe and detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The UN Security Council has ratcheted up the pressure on the regime, issuing a statement supported by Myanmar's top ally China deploring the crackdown and calling for the release of thousands of political prisoners.
In official media Saturday, Myanmar called the UN statement "regrettable," but vowed to cooperate with the world body while pressing ahead with its so-called "road map" to democracy.
The UN Security Council was "totally disregarding the fact that the situation in Myanmar does not represent a threat to regional and international peace and security," the official New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.
"The basic principle of the foreign policy of the Union of Myanmar is to maintain friendly relations with other countries in the region and in the world, and to have close cooperation with the United Nations," it added.
But it made no acknowledgement of the UN call for the release of political prisoners nor for the regime to engage in dialogue with detained pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.
Since Gambari's last visit, Than Shwe has made a heavily conditioned offer to hold talks with Aung San Suu Kyi, hinged on her ending support for sanctions and dropping "confrontational" policies.
The junta also appointed deputy labour minister Aung Kyi, a well-connected official known as a relative moderate, as a liaison officer tasked with coordinating contacts with the Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party has indicated that the talks proposal was under consideration, while insisting they should be held with no strings attached.
However the European Union already looks set to beef up its sanctions against Myanmar next week by introducing an embargo on timber, gems and metals, according to a draft text agreed Friday.
Protests in Myanmar began in mid-August after a crippling hike in the price of fuel, and escalated into the biggest challenge to the regime since student-led protests were brutally crushed in 1988.
Led by Buddhist monks, the protests drew as many as 100,000 people onto the streets of the main city Yangon, but the subsequent crackdown left at least 13 dead and saw more than 2,000 arrested.
Myanmar's state-run media says more than half of those arrested have been freed, but there has been little word of at least 950 still in custody.
AFP
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