Mar 27, 2008 (DVB), About 40 young people staged a demonstration in Rangoon on National Armed Forces Day today to urge people to vote No in the upcoming national referendum in May.

The demonstration was held in front of the National League for Democracy headquarters in the former capital.

Witnesses said the youths carried placards bearing messages such as "We don’t want the sham national referendum that will drive us to become slaves of the military and China", "Release all political prisoners" and "Start dialogue now".

They arrived at the NLD headquarters in Bahan township at around 11am and began their demonstration by chanting political slogans under the close watch of government officials.

Reporting by Maung Too