Myanmar’s pro-democracy opposition Tuesday urged the ruling junta to focus on improving the nation’s crumbling economy, as the generals staged a major military parade in their new capital.

The National League for Democracy also called on the military to free detained party leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel peace laureate who has spent more than a decade in confinement.

“Today we call for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other prisoners, and we also call to solve the economic problems of the people,” NLD spokesman Nyan Win said.

“We know the people are suffering today from economic hardships,” he added.

While Myanmar’s junta leader Than Shwe held a lavish parade in the new capital Naypyidaw to mark Armed Forces Day, the NLD had a simple ceremony with some 400 activists and diplomats at the party’s dilapidated headquarters in Yangon.

The NLD calls the holiday Resistance Day, because it marks the beginning of the uprising againt Japan’s occupation during World War II. The struggle was led by Aung San Suu Kyi’s father, General Aung San, and eventually resulted in the country’s independence from Britain.

Myanmar is one of the poorest countries in the world, despite its vast natural resources, after decades of mismanagement by successive military governments.

While the military carved its new capital out of the jungles of central Myanmar, basic infrastructure in Yangon continued to decay, with lengthy power outages a daily occurrence across the nation’s largest city.

Frustration at soaring prices for basic foods turned into a small protest last month in Yangon, the first public demonstration against the junta in a decade.

A group of former student leaders, who led a pro-democracy uprising 1988 and now call themselves the 88 Generation Students, also denounced the country’s “fascist” government.

“The fascists organized groups of assailants who torture the dissidents without hesitation,” they said in a statement.

“Fascism reached our land with the fake promise of independence. All our people suffered from the arbitrary detentions, torture and other cruel, inhuman treatments and even killings of the fascists’ affiliated agents,” they added.

During his speech to the military parade, Than Shwe rejected allegations of rights abuses by his government and vowed to “crush” anyone who stood in the way of his plans for the country.