Kachin students placed floral wreaths at the spot in which student activist Hprup Zau Nan was shot dead by junta’s security forces during the ‘1988 Democracy Uprising’ in Burma on the 22nd anniversary of his death yesterday, said local sources.

The students placed the floral wreaths yesterday morning in front of No. 3 State High School in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State, Northern Burma, where Zau Nan fell after being shot dead by a riot policeman, said Kachin student sources.

A measure of the junta’s intolerance was in evidence because soon after the floral wreaths were placed in memory of the Zau Nan, they were taken away by regime officials, an eyewitness said.

Sixteen year-old Zau Nan, a grade seven student of No. 5 State Middle School in Du Kahtawng quarter in Myitkyina was shot dead at about 9 a.m. local time by a policeman from No. 1 Police Station when he joined pro-democracy demonstrations with comrades in front of the No. 3 High School.

Zau Nan was born on June 6, 1972 and his parents were Salang Hprup Pa Yaw and Hpauwung Hkawn Nu.

In Kachin State, Zau Nan was the only one to be killed in the student-led pro-democracy demonstrations. Across the country over 3000 students were brutally killed by the junta during the uprising.

Two years after the pro-democracy uprising, the Burmese regime or the so-called State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) went for countrywide elections in 1990. The National League for Democracy Party (NLD) led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi swept the polls and recorded a landslide victory but an adamant SLORC refused to transfer power to the party.

Now, 20 years after 1990 elections, the Snr-Gen Than Shwe led military junta is gearing up to hold elections this year under the 2008 constitution which is designed to help the junta legitimize military dictatorship.