Rangoon
SPDC security was beefed up over the eve of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s 63rd Birthday in Rangoon and other major cities, said sources close to the NLD inside Burma. Prominent NLD leaders and former NLD leaders have been watched and tailed 24/7, sources said.
Near the NLD headquarters, other prominent NLD leaders have been watched and followed by plainclothes police and USDA members. The regime authorities were ordered to keep peace and stability before Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s Birthday celebration on June 19th. Shwedagon Pagoda, a major political focal point of Burma’s independence and anti-dictatorship movement since 1920, has been patrolled tightly by police and military personnel, witnesses said.
Two issues have been the main focus for pro-democracy activists recently, said a former NLD member and movie director. The pro-democracy activists from the NLD and other groups have been working mainly on Cyclone Nargis and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi issues lately.
Sources close to the NLD said that regime would be ready to arrest prominent NLD members on the eve of the Lady’s Birthday. This would be a form of testing the water, a way for the regime to see the reaction from the international community and domestic activists such as the social and religious community.
