The following report on the August 1988 uprising appeared in The New York Times on August 14, 1988.

Calm Is Reported in Burma, For Now

By SETH MYDANS, SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK TIMES

Rangoon was reportedly returning to normal today after the resignation Friday of the new Burmese leader, U Sein Lwin. Mr. Sein Lwin's resignation was forced by five days of protests in which hundreds of people were shot to death by soldiers.

But in Burma's closed society, where the leadership of the student protesters is as secretive as the one-party Government, it was unclear to what extent the nation's crisis had been resolved. Mr. Sein Lwin was widely despised for leading the harsh suppression of earlier protests. But his departure was just one of 10 demands circulated by the students who led the demonstrations.

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Far more difficult to achieve would be the dismantling of the autocratic system of one-party rule that has turned one of Asia's most richly endowed nations into one of the poorest in the world.

Military May Hold Power

It was not known what political pressures were involved in the removal of Mr. Sein Lwin. But there was speculation that the balance of power was in the hands of the military, the nation's most powerful institution, or back in the hands of Mr. Sein Lwin's predecessor, U Ne Win, who stepped down on July 23 after 26 years as leader.

The National Assembly is scheduled to meet next Friday, presumably to name a successor to Mr. Sein Lwin, who was named the chairman of the Burma Socialist Program Party on July 26 and the nation's President a day later. He resigned both posts yesterday. The legislature is also expected to take up some of the substantive issues that have turned much of the population against the Government.

One Western diplomat, reached by telephone in Rangoon, saw the removal of Mr. Sein Lwin as a positive sign for change, indicating an unspoken agreement between the Government and the people challenging it that the time had come for new direction.

''It is my gut feeling that we are seeing Burma on the verge of a new era and that the next few years will be a transitional period,'' he said. ''It won't change overnight, but I think the conditions are now being created for the type of changes people are calling for.''

'Instability and Uncertainty'

The next few years ''could be a period of some instability and uncertainty as the country gropes toward the future,'' the diplomat said. ''But I think we are seeing the beginning of an era in which Burma finally embarks on that process of development that is already under way in so much of Asia.''

Accounts by witnesses of the Burmese crisis have declined since midweek, when the Government ceased issuing tourist visas. Since the turmoil began, Burma has become particularly vigilant in barring the entry of foreign journalists, who have in the past entered the country as tourists.

Tourists arriving in Bangkok from Burma said the people who joined in the protests this week were jubilant. But it was not known how the protesters might direct their new-found political power. The Government said 95 people were killed this week in the unrest, although reliable but unofficial reports have put the death toll in the hundreds.

The Government-owned radio station reported tonight that makeshift roadblocks directed against patrolling soldiers were being dismantled, and tourists returning from the capital said they had seen troops leaving the city center in trucks.

Violence Said to Ebb

The official radio said there was no violence today in Rangoon apart from an attempt to burn a local Government office. In Pegu, 45 miles to the northeast, where some of the most intense confrontations were reported, the radio said strikers were dispersing at the request of Buddhist monks.

It said buses were running again and shops were reopening after five days of street demonstrations in which masked soldiers repeatedly opened fire on unarmed protesters in cities around the country.

The arriving tourists said prices had soared and shops were crowded with people whose food supplies had run low during the disturbances.

But despite the return of normal city life, there were reports that protesters were circulating leaflets calling for further demonstrations.

Beyond the removal of Mr. Sein Lwin, the students demanded an end to martial law, which was imposed at the start of the month; the freeing of jailed opposition figures and student leaders, and the payment of compensation to those killed or injured in the protests.

More fundamentally, they called for a reduction in the cost of living—''easier said than done,'' as one diplomat put it—and for the holding of a referendum on one-party rule.

Referendum Plan Rebuffed

Such a referendum was proposed by Mr. Ne Win when he resigned, but in what appeared to be one of his few political defeats, the proposal was rejected by his hand-picked National Assembly, whose members owe their power to the one-party system.

The students also called for direct discussions of their demands, a step that would acknowledge their standing as political players.

Historically, students have been in the lead in Burmese protest movements, including a 1938 uprising that spurred the end of British colonial rule.

Mr. Sein Lwin, despite his reputation as a hard-line follower of Mr. Ne Win, took the first steps to open Burma's centralized economy when he took power at the end of July.

It appeared that many in Government shared the sentiment of the protesters that broad changes were needed in Burma's economic system.

Deep-rooted Corruption

But with power firmly in the hands of the military and a small Government elite, most of them current or former military men, and with deep-rooted corruption that contributed to the nation's poverty, a move toward a more open form of government seemed an unlikely turn of events.

Along with the students and their broad support among the people, the Government also faced the opposition of the clergy in this strongly Buddhist nation. Monks took part in this week's demonstrations, sometimes in leading roles, and their influence will be difficult for the Government to ignore.

One other influence is pressure from Japan, the country's largest aid donor, which called today for economic reforms to restore stability.

There have been reports, which Japanese officials have refused to confirm, that Tokyo, which supplies almost 80 percent of all loans and grants to Burma, was instrumental in persuading Mr. Ne Win and Mr. Sein Lwin that economic changes were needed.