Dhaka: Thirteen Arakanese in exile, including five monks, began a long march on Thursday from the Bangladesh capital Dhaka to the southern town of Cox's Bazaar to mobilise Burmese people to oppose the ensuing referendum. The distance between Dhaka and Cox's Bazaar is 245 miles.

The long march is intended to attract the attention of the Bangladeshi people as well the international community to the forthcoming referendum for the new draft constitution that is scheduled to be held in Burma in May 2008.

U Thilawantha, a leader of the monks' alliance Sasana Moli in Bangladesh said, "We are monks but we are participating in the long march because we would like to express our desire against the referendum. We would like the Burmese military junta to know how much monks are dissatisfied with the referendum."

The Burmese military regime is currently preparing to hold a referendum in May on the new draft constitution, in which democracy icon Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is excluded from participating in future elections and non-Burman ethnic groups are not given equal rights.

Another organizer of the march, Ko Tha Tun said, "The military government has been working on what they want since they seized power, and they have never given cognizance to the entire Burmese people. Now people are suffering from hunger and poverty but they want to continue holding on to power. How can we accept the military government's plan legitimize their power? So we arranged the long march to protest the referendum."

The long march began at the historic monument Shaheed Minar at Dhaka University at 9 am on Thursday, and the activists have been distributing many anti-referendum flyers in Bengali among the Bangladesh communities they pass along the way.

"Most Bangladeshi people know the present situation in Burma and they also know of the monk-led Saffron Revolution that broke out in our country last September. Many Bangladesh people have been cheering us on and waving their hands, "Ko Tha Tun said.

The activists on the long march are wearing white shirts emblazoned with the word "NO", for the referendum and are holding two flags, a Buddhist flag and the flag of Bangladesh. They made it 20 miles out of downtown Dhaka yesterday on the first day of the march.

Bangladesh is currently under a state of emergency and the authorities have not allowed any political activities on the street, but officials have not disturbed the marchers protesting the referendum.

U Thilawantha said, "We really appreciate the Bangladesh government's gesture and its people because there has not been any disturbance in our long march programme. Our peaceful long march will end in the town of Cox's Bazaar on April 10 if there are no disturbances."