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SLORC withdraw troops outside Aung
- Subject: SLORC withdraw troops outside Aung
- From: tun@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 24 Jan 1994 05:06:00
Subject: SLORC withdraw troops outside Aung San Suu Kyi's home
SLORC withdraws troops outside Suu Kyi's home
AFP, Kyodo
January 24, 1994
All the soldiers guarding the home of Burmese dissident and Nobel laureate
Aung San Suu Kyi have been withdrawn, Western diplomats in Rangoon said
yesterday.
"They are gone from the outside of the house. I don't know about the
inside," one diplomat said when reached by telephone from Bangkok.
A second Western diplomat, also contacted by telephone from Bangkok,
confirmed that the guards were absent from outside the house.
"I passed along [the street in front of] her residence last night and the
two guard boxes were not there any longer," he said, speaking on condition
of anonymity.
The second diplomat also said there could still be guards inside the
residence, and speculated that they could have been pulled from outside the
house to make the military government look good to the increasing number of
tourists visiting Rangoon.
"It is too soon to draw any conclusions, but it is definitely the first
time [the guards have been withdrawn] since she was put under house arrest"
on July 20, 1989, he said.
The first official, who also declined to be identified by name, refused to
speculate as to why the soldiers guarding the complex on Rangoon's University
Avenue had been withdrawn. "But I don't think it is terribly significant,"
he said.
On Saturday, sentry boxes were removed from around her residence, but
armed guards still remained around the house.
The ruling SLORC has not issued any statement on the removal of the
structures. Barricades blocking road access to and from her residence were
put up at 9pm on Saturday in accordance with he military's daily blockade
rule.... The SLORC has not removed a sign it had put up in front of the
house warning passers-by not to approach the residence.
In the face of an international outcry calling for her release and
restoration of democracy, the junta has eased the conditions of her
detention somewhat, allowing her British husband Michael Aris and their
children to visit her once or twice a year.
Burma's chief justice reportedly hinted on Friday that the detention period
of Suu Kyi can be prolonged beyond the existing legal deadline of July
this year.