REUTER: NCUB Calls for Campaign of

[ktint@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: REUTER: NCUB Calls for Campaign of Defiance Against SLORC

       NCUB Calls for Campaign of Defiance Against SLORC

    BANGKOK, June 3 (Reuter) - Burma's jungle-based opposition called on
Monday for a campaign of defianace against the military government in
Rangoon, saying the administration was pushing the country into danger with
its refusal to negotiate.
     The National Council of the Union of Burma (NCUB) said in a statement
the government's recent verbal attacks on Aung San Suu Kyi and her National
League for Democracy (NLD) party showed the generals were unwilling to open
a dialogue on resolving Burma's political problems.
     Burma's ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) has
attacked Suu Kyi and her party in the state-controlled media since the May
26-28 NLD meeting at her Rangoon home.
     She has been branded a tool of imperialists and a traitor, and the
authorities have vowed to crush what they term "destructionists."
     The SLORC's actions "show it has no willingness to resolve the basic
political problems of the country through negotiation and dialogue," said
the NCUB, an umbrella group of pro-democracy exiles and autonomy-seeking
ethnic minority rebels.
     "It shows that the SLORC is dementedly attempting to consolidate the
military dictatorship and is pushing the country senselessly towards a very
dangerous state," the opposition alliance said.
     The NCUB called on "patriots" in the Burmese army, civil service and
the SLORC's mass organisation to adopt a "struggle of defiance ...to
totally refuse to do as the SLORC commands."
     The SLORC has neutralised most armed opposition, reaching ceasefire
agreements since 1989 with all but one of the major ethnic minority rebel
groups fighting for autonomy.
     The NCUB is based in remote territory in southeast Burma under the
control of Karen guerrillas, the last major ethnic force yet to sign a
truce.
  REUTER
KT
ISBDA