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Myanmar Political Parties

Free Burma Coalition / National League for Democracy
Party of the Burmese Socialist Program
Union Solidarity and Development Association

See also:

Free Burma Coalition / National League for Democracy (NLD)

by Jorge Candeias

This flag in known as the "Fighting Peacock" flag.

From: http://: From: http://www.freeburmacoalition.org/old/images.html:

The Free Burma Coalition (FBC) is an umbrella group of campuses and organizations around the world working for freedom and democracy in Burma. Our mission is to build a grassroots movement inspired by and modeled after the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. Our movement stands 100% behind the leadership of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy (NLD), whom the people have recognized as the sole legitimate leaders of Burma.

The peacock has been an emblem of Burma since the days of the Burmese Kings. Usually, the tradition has been to show the peacock in its "display" mode, with the tail spread in a circular fan. During the colonial rule by the British, the student activitists, to signify protests again the British, adopted the "fighting" stance of the peacock. The fighting peacock without the star, was the flag of the student union until 1962, when the military banned the institution.
Anonymous

At the celebration of the 6th anniversary of the elections in Myanmar (Burma) such flags were carried around, also the heads of NLD were wearing stickers with (apparently) the party's flag.

In the News those flags were shown only very briefly, and I cannot describe it completely. So this may serve as a first approximation:
The flag is plain red with a white (or yellow) five-pointed star near the upper hoist corner. In the center there is a yellow symbol which looked to me like a peacock (which is indeed an old national symbol of Myanmar) looking towards the hoist, its tail not spread. There is more in this central symbol (something circular, outlined in yellow).

Harald Müller, 28 April 1996

One of our ferrets [Dov Gutterman] spotted the website of the National League for Democracy. Part of the Free Burma Coalition, this flag is known as the "Fighting Peacock" flag. Taken from http://www.freeburmacoalition.org/old/images.html . The flag was a 2:3 (dark) red flag with a huge white star in the canton and a golden yellow stylized peacock in the lower fly.

Later on, another ferret [Thanh-Tam Le] pointed to a scan of an American magazine article that had a picture of Burmese oppositionists [members of the National League for Democracy] under another flag very similar to the one above. The article states "Gyow is a political refugee from Myanmar, who's lived in Ithaca [New York] since 1993. He is a member of the National League for Democracy, who is fighting the Myanmar militaristic regime. The flag, which features a fighting peacock, is the symbol for the Burmese students who demonstrate against the military regime."

This flag is a 1:2 red flag, with a white star in the canton (a *lot* smaller) and a yellow peacock centered, even more stylized than the first image and with the body within a yellow ring.

This is probably a variant of the NLD flag (possibly the main variant), but the caption of the photo may be interpreted as meaning that this is the flag used by a juvenile organization.

Jorge Candeias, 13 December 1999

Another version of National League for Democracy flag has a smaller star and the letters NLD. Maybe the letters are because the flag is in a demonstration to be reported by Western press.
Francisco Santos, 7 June 2003

See also:

Unofficial NLD web page with a graphic of this flag.

Party of the Burmese Socialist Program

contributed by Ivan Sache

Burmese Path of Socialism, red field with two partially superimp