Protests around world against Myanmar crackdown

LONDON: Protesters across the world demonstrated against Myanmar's bloody crackdown on dissent, with thousands gathering in London and smaller actions in Sydney, Stockholm, Bangkok, Paris and elsewhere.

The coordinated displays of public condemnation on Saturday followed the violent crackdown by Myanmar's junta on thousands of activists in late September. At least 13 people were killed and 2,000 detained in the clampdown.
      
In Britain, Myanmar's former colonial power, thousands crowded through streets behind saffron-robed Buddhist monks who threw petals into the River Thames.

Police said 3,000 people took part. Organisers put the figure at 10,000.
      
After stopping at British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Downing Street offices to tie red headbands to the gates, the demonstrators went on to Trafalgar Square to hear MPs, human rights campaigners and Myanmar exiles exhort the United Nations to take action against Yangon's junta.

"Burma is not a human rights emergency of today, last week or last month. It is a human rights emergency that the world has chosen to forget for the last 20 years," said Amnesty International's seretary general Irene Khan.
      
Brown issued a message of support to the people of Myanmar, telling them: "The world has not forgotten - and will not forget -- the people of Burma."
      
In Sydney, hundreds rallied outside the landmark Opera House. Another 1,000 marched through Melbourne, some carrying red banners that read "no more bloodshed."
       
Other protests took place in Perth, and in Brisbane, where organiser Natasha Lutes said, "This is about getting message to the people in Burma.

"They've been struggling to get the message out about the atrocities that are happening in Burma, putting their lives on the line. We want them to know the world has been listening and ordinary people everywhere support them."
     
Dozens also gathered in front of the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok, shouting "Free Burma" and brandishing pictures of Myanmar's pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Ki.

Campaigners in India were to hold a candle-lit vigil outside a war memorial in the heart of New Delhi
      
In Singapore, a vigil outside the Myanmar embassy involving an opposition political party and members of the Myanmar community entered its seventh day yesterday.
      
Amnesty International Korea said some 200 protesters, including immigrant workers from Myanmar, would stage a protest outside the country's embassy in central Seoul on Sunday to press for the release of prisoners of conscience.
      
In Paris, 200 people gathered at a Buddhist temple where they placed yellow roses at the feet of a giant Buddha statue.
      
A similarly sized demonstration occurred in Vienna, where participants wore saffron as a sign of solidarity. A union leader, Rudolf Hundstorfer, said "we can fear the worst" for those detained in Myanmar.
      
Brussels, the Belgian city home to the main institutions of the European Union, saw 400 demonstrators gather.

"We have to know where are the people who have been arrested, and they must be freed -- you are their last hope," one of the organisers told the crowd, which included Belgian MPs.