London, Oct. 6 : Burmese pro-democracy activists have vowed to fight “to the death” to overthrow the military junta, even as the country's generals continued with their crackdown against the protesters.

Two activists who spoke to The Times from their hideout in Burma’s southern Mon state called on the international community to apply greater pressure on the military Government of General Than Shwe to release their leaders, who were snatched from their homes during the demonstrations.

They denounced the United Nations, and its special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, for cosying up to the junta.

“We feel that he achieved nothing. He should have visited the places of the demonstrations — like Pakkoku [where Burmese monks first demonstrated] and the Shwedagon Pagoda. He should have visited Insein Prison [in Rangoon], then he would have seen the truth," a female activist going by the name of Khaind said.

“He should have demanded that our leaders, the political prisoners, were released. We’ve made a lot of sacrifices and many people have been killed and it’s not right for him to come and see just what the junta wants him to see,” Khaind added.

Khaind slipped past police checkpoints to escape from Rangoon last Saturday, accompanied by Myint Htoo Aung and another male colleague, all veterans of the so-called 1988 Generation, which first rallied against the junta 20 years ago.

They claimed that they were involved in organising demonstrations last Thursday close to Rangoon’s Sule Pagoda, where unarmed protesters were fired on with smoke bombs, rubber bullets and live rounds. A Japanese photographer was shot dead during the protest.

Both Myint Htoo Aung and Ms Khaind insisted that the number of demonstrators killed was far higher than the figure of 13 admitted to by the ruling junta.

Yesterday, Gambari told the U.N. Security Council that he had received “continuing and disturbing reports of abuses . . . including raids on private homes, beatings, arbitrary arrests and disappearances” since he returned from his four-day trip to Burma.

Nevertheless, he spoke of his high expectations of a conditional offer from General Than Shwe to meet the opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest.

“The sooner such a meeting can take place, the better,” he said.

The activists, however, denounced the proposal as a ploy intended to buy time and damp down international pressure.

In a country that has spies everywhere and where many telephones are assumed to be tapped, the activists were taking a risk in contacting The Times. Their decisions to do so reflects frustration and despair on the part of the 88 Generation — named after the events of 1988 when a popular rising against the junta was suppressed with the loss of as many as 3,000 lives.

“We need a lot of help from the international community but we won’t give up. We will fight until we die, or until they are dead,” they said. (ANI)