During the demonstration Burmese activists shouted anti-military regime slogans and demanded the immediate release of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest.

“We don’t feel the taste of freedom though we celebrate Independence Day. We need to work harder to attain the so called second independence as Aung San Suu Kyi had put it”, said Khun Ooka from the Nation Council of Union of Burma.

“There is no freedom at all in Burma. We cannot express ourselves, speak and do anything even though we are oppressed. In every place there is torture and persecution,” said Daw Mawli from the Burma Lawyer’s Council. 

Some activists also acted out art performances dedicated to the lack of freedom in Burma.

The parliamentary democracy system was in vogue in Burma after it got independence from British colonial rule on January 4, 1948.

Ever since General Ne Win, in the name of a caretaker government, grabbed power in a military coup in 1962, the country lost its freedom. People in Burma are being oppressed by successive military regimes for seeking freedom.  - KNG