TOP: Members of the Free Burma Coalition, Burma Refugee Council and other groups protested near the Burmese embassy in Bangkok on Sunday. RIGHT: Costumed "soldiers" intimidate voters trying to cast a ballot in a mock election held outside the Burmese embassy Sunday in Bangkok, Thailand.
BANGKOK -- Pro-democracy activists in Bangkok joined in demonstrations worldwide Sunday to denounce neighboring Burma's first election in 20 years as a "sham."
Reporters and Thai police outnumbered about three dozen Burmese refugees and activists, who gathered across from the Burmese Embassy to condemn both the military-led government and an election they believe is a rigged.
"We fervently hope that the vast majority of Burmese people with the right to vote ... will exercise their right not to vote," a spokesman for the Free Burma Coalition said, reading from an open letter drafted in response to the election.
Thai police stopped the protesters from approaching the embassy with a letter and burning Burmese flags.
Instead, demonstrators stomped their feet upon the flags and engaged in sidewalk theater. Two protesters dressed as Burmese soldiers intimidated and "beat" voters trying to cast a ballot for opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Protesters also repeated calls for the release of Suu Kyi, who has been under arrest for most of the past 20 years since winning the country's last open election in 1990.
International observers and foreign media have been barred from entering Burma, which the military-led government renamed Myanmar after toppling civilian authority nearly 50 years ago.
Suu Kyi, along with thousands of other political prisoners, could not participate under rules determined by the ruling junta.
Instead the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party is all but certain to win handily, despite its lack of popular support.
Burmese officials describe the election as a significant step toward restoring representative democracy. Critics say it's a naked bid to legitimize their unpopular rule.
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The Bangkok journalism scene's buzz for the past couple months has been about who succeeded in securing visas to Burma to cover the election. I know or am aware of several people able to acquire tourism visas, a not-uncommon practice the authorities clearly anticipated. The SPDC nabbed a Japanese photog today in Myawaddy, a town just across the border from Thailand, according to Irrawaddy.
The Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand is offering feeds of what information is available from its clubhouse in the Maneeya building at Chidlom.
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