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Wired News: Burma - Politics



   By AYE AYE WIN
 Associated Press Writer
   RANGOON, Burma (AP) -- Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi said Friday the
Burmese people, not the country's military rulers, should determine whether she will have a
national leadership position.
   The Nobel Peace Prize laureate said she did not fear the military leaders who seized
power in 1988 after violently suppressing pro-democracy demonstrations and put her under
house arrest in 1989. She was freed Monday.
   Speaking to reporters at her home overlooking Inya Lake, Mrs. Suu Kyi recalled that her
father, revolutionary leader Gen. Aung San, was also a military man. He was assassinated
just before Burma attained independence from Britain in 1948.
   "That is why, perhaps, I am not afraid of them," she said.
   Asked if the army would let her become prime minister or president, she said the decision
should not rest with them.
   "It's for the people of Burma to decide," she said.
   Mrs. Suu Kyi, 50, was a founder of the National League for Democracy, which easily won a
1990 general election, but was denied power by the military. She won the 1991 Nobel Peace
Prize for her non-violent efforts to promote democracy.
   She urged foreign leaders not to rush to improve relations with Burma following her release
because "nothing else" has changed under military rule.
   "All those who are interested in democratic development in Burma should wait and see,"
Mrs. Suu Kyi said. "They should see what is going to happen before they decide to change
their tactics."
   "We are nowhere near democracy yet," she said. "I have been released, that's all. There's
nothing else. The situation has not changed in any other way."
   Foreign governments have welcomed Mrs. Suu Kyi's release, but some pressed for more
democratic reform in Burma, which has been accused of widespread human rights violations.
The United States, Japan and other governments curtailed economic aid and diplomatic
contacts with the Burmese government after the 1988 massacre.
   In the United States, Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Wednesday he would go ahead with
tough legislation he had planned before Mrs. Suu Kyi's release.
   The bill would ban U.S. trade with Burma unless all political prisoners are released, power
is transferred to elected opposition leaders, and progress is made against drug trafficking.
   Sustained pressure is needed against "the biggest pariah state in the world," said
McConnell, who announced a hearing on Burma for July 25.
   On Friday, Mrs. Suu Kyi welcomed the move.
   "They are very tough sanctions and I think they have shown that they are very interested in
how the democracy movement progresses," she said. "I am very grateful for it."
   In Tokyo, a top Foreign Ministry official said Friday that Japan will offer some financial aid to
Burma "to show how the international community welcomes" Mrs. Suu Kyi's release, Japan's
Kyodo News Service reported.
   But the Burmese government would have to set a specific timetable for transferring power to
civilians before full resumption of Japanese aid can take place, said the official, who
demanded anonymity.
   Mrs. Suu Kyi said Friday that her husband, British academic Michael Aris, and their younger
son Kim would be joining her in Rangoon soon. Her family had been allowed to visit only a
few times during her detention.
   Every day since her release, people have been crowding outside her compound. On
Friday, about 300 people dispersed only after she went out to speak with them. Mrs. Suu Kyi
has urged people to be calm, apparently to avoid causing any mass disturbances that might
give the military a pretext to interfere.