AP: 139 HAVE BEEN FREED

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139 HAVE BEEN FREED

   By AYE AYE WIN
 Associated Press Writer
   RANGOON, Burma (AP) -- Burma's state-run press accused opposition leader
Aung San Suu Kyi Wednesday of being a "puppet princess" of her British
husband, stopping just short of calling her a foreign spy.
   Burmese newspapers, which are all state-run, have devoted lengthy
articles in the past few weeks to denigrating Suu Kyi and her National
League for Democracy, which defied the government last month by holding a
party congress.
   The military government, which seized power in 1988 after violently
suppressing pro-democracy demonstrations, tried to stop the meeting by
detaining almost all its delegates.
   The 18 delegates who eluded arrest adopted resolutions urging the regime
to resign, and said the pro-democracy party would draft an alternative
constitution to one being considered by a government-stacked panel.
   The lengthy attack in the state press suggested that Suu Kyi was more
loyal to her husband, British academic Michael Aris, than to her country.
   Suggesting Suu Kyi could endanger the country's security if she assumed
a position of national leadership, the article said: "It is quite obvious
that she cannot be trusted in the least."
   "Organizations such as the CIA, which want to pry and dabble in the
internal affairs of (Burma), will no longer have to raise spies and agents
in different forms by spending huge amounts of money.
   "This is because they already have that person, who can enter the
country legally through the gate which is open and will pry open and get
for them state secrets on (Burma's) internal affairs."
   Although the article did not mention Suu Kyi or her husband by name, it
made its targets clear by other references, such as using her street
address.
   The daughter of independence hero Gen. Aung San, Suu Kyi won the 1991
Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to promote democracy. She was released
last July from six years of house arrest after she was detained but not
tried on a charge of endangering national security.
   Wednesday's article said the junta's two top leaders met twice with Suu
Kyi last year, and hinted that they had considered appointing her to an
official position.
   The position the leaders "may have thought" of giving her would have had
"nothing to do with foreign relations but would be appropriate for the
daughter of a state leader and would be honorable for her and beneficial
for the state," said the article.
   The leaders recognized Suu Kyi's "cleverness, strong will, academic
pride and stubbornness," it said. But her attitude changed after a visit
from her husband.
   "The loving kindness and affection placed on her by state leaders has
not been reciprocated," the article said. After her husband's visit, "the
actions and attitudes of the puppet princess changed completely at once."
   Other recent articles have indirectly threatened Suu Kyi and her
colleagues with legal action, suggesting some of their activities --
including weekend speeches outside her Rangoon home and her party's
intention to draft a constitution -- are illegal.
   A spokesman for Suu Kyi's party said Wednesday that 139 of the 262 party
members detained by the government two weeks ago have been freed. There are
still 123 unaccounted for, despite the regime's announcement Friday that
they were being freed.
   
KT
ISBDA