NAYPYITAW, 09 August 2021, (TON): As Myanmar marked the 33rd anniversary of the “Four Eights” pro-democracy uprising on Sunday, activists around the country renewed calls to end military rule once and for all.

Anti-dictatorship protests were held in both urban and rural areas to commemorate the 1988 uprising, which began on August 8 of that year and was crushed the following month by a bloody coup that claimed thousands of lives.

Coming 188 days after the latest military coup, the anniversary was remembered with a renewed sense of urgency, with many activists linking the two events.

“Let’s struggle together towards completion of the unfinished 8-8-88 people’s liberation movement” was a slogan seen on placards and banners at a number of protests.

Some signs, meanwhile, bore starker messages.

“Blood that was shed in ’88 must be repaid in ’21,” read one that hearkened back to the violence that ushered in nearly a quarter century of brutal military rule.

That era ostensibly ended a decade ago after the military orchestrated a transition to quasi-civilian rule that left its power largely intact.

However, the country was again plunged into crisis when the military seized direct control on February 1, citing alleged irregularities in last year’s election.

Since then, the newly installed regime has killed nearly a thousand civilians and arrested another 7,000 in an effort to crush a massive popular resistance movement reminiscent of the one that emerged in 1988.

Many who came out into the streets on Sunday made it clear that they considered themselves heirs of that earlier struggle.