Key Highlights
- In early December he appeared in Mandalay, the second-biggest city, to protest against the regime’s latest ploy: a sham election that is due to begin on December 28th.
- Delighted locals applauded and flashed the three-finger salute (a symbol of opposition to military rule) before their hero slipped back into the shadows. That appearance, in a market right by a military headquarters, was one of Dr Tayzar San’s most daring yet.
- But it came at the end of a disastrous year for the rebels who are fighting the ruling generals.
- Armies representing Myanmar’s many ethnic minorities have lost battles with the junta in the country’s hilly borderlands.
- Youngsters from the Burman majority who are fighting in the centre of the country have taken a pounding, too.
