Security tightened in Myanmar amid possible demonstration

Pro-democracy Myanmar nationals hold up their passports as a sign that they have the right to vote, while gathering outside their country's embassy in Singapore to vote in a referendum on a draft constitution on Sunday April 27, 2008 in Singapore. Myanmar's government has stipulated only citizens with legitimate government documents, such as exit permits, can vote overseas. That rule would exclude most political exiles and refugees. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

YANGON, Myanmar—Security was tightened Sunday in Myanmar's largest city as rumors spread that pro-democracy activists would launch protests against an upcoming referendum on a draft constitution backed by the ruling military.

Riot police and junta supporters carrying batons were deployed at major road junctions and Buddhist monuments including Yangon's famous Shwedagon Pagoda, the site of many earlier demonstrations in the staunchly Buddhist country.

Dissidents in Myanmar and exile groups elsewhere have urged voters to vote against the constitution, saying it is merely a ploy to perpetuate more than four decades of military rule.

Voting ahead of the May 10 referendum by Myanmar citizens has already begun in some countries including Japan and Singapore, where about a thousand people lined up outside their country's embassy Sunday.

At least 230 Myanmar citizens held their own mock "referendum" outside the Myanmar Embassy in Tokyo, where official polls were also held for expatriates with the required official documents such as exit permits. The requirement effectively excludes most exiles and dissidents from the vote. The same rules applied to expatriate voters elsewhere.

A Myanmar man was arrested and 12 demonstrators were injured Saturday in a scuffle with Japanese police in Tokyo as about 150 Myanmar citizens and Japanese supporters demanded all expatriates be allowed to vote.

Another protest in Tokyo ended peacefully Sunday.

About 100 Myanmar activists also staged a peaceful demonstration in Thailand's capital, Bangkok, shouting slogans against the draft constitution.

University student Myo Myint Maung, 23, a spokesman for the Overseas Burmese Patriots -- a loose network of Myanmar activists based in Singapore -- said many were wearing caps printed with the word "No" on them.

He urged everyone to vote 'no' "because the draft constitution is for a sham democracy," the student said. "It's not for a true and real democracy as all the terms in the constitution are biased toward the military regime."

The new constitution is supposed to be followed in 2010 by a general election, and both votes are elements of a "roadmap to democracy" drawn up by the junta. The draft constitution guarantees 25 percent of parliamentary seats to the military and allows the president to hand over all power to the military in a state of emergency.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been under military rule since 1962.

Its government has been widely criticized for human rights abuses and suppression of pro-democracy parties such as the one led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for over a decade.

The ruling junta refused to honor the results of 1990 general elections won by Suu Kyi's party.

Last September at least 31 people were killed and thousands more were detained when the military cracked down on peaceful protests led by Buddhist monks and democracy advocates.