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Suu Kyi confined to home again (Hou



Subject: Suu Kyi confined to home again (House Arrest).


		Suu Kyi confined to home again
		******************************


	The democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is back under effective 
house arrest as Burma's military rulers enforce a fresh crackdown on 
dissent after the biggest anti-Government protests in nearly a decade.

	Ms Suu Kyi is restricted to her house in central Rangoon. 
Security forces today barred her from attending a meeting with leaders of 
her National League for Democracy.

	An army officer called at the house last night to confirm the 
detention order after police erected street barricades blocking access to 
journalists and party workers.

	A spokesman for Ms Suu Kyi said it was unclear how long the 
authorities intended to detain the Nobel Peace Prize laurate, who was 
released in July last year after six years under house arrest.

	"We don't know if this is permanent, but no one is allowed to go 
out or to come in. We are calling it unlawful cinfinement," the spokesman 
said in a telephone interview.

	Earlier Ms Suu Kyi appealed for international "moral and 
practical support" after security forces yesterday broke up a rally and 
protest march that drew several thousand students and workers on to 
Rangoon's streets.

	"I would like the world to know that the repression in Burma is 
getting worse," Ms Suu Kyi told the former Commonwealth Secretary-General 
Sir Sonny Ramphal, who is chairing a conference of democracy campaigners 
in Cape Town.

	Military authorities said several hundred students rounded up 
after yesterday's protest had all been released. But league sources said 
at least five party members were believed still to be in detention and 
the whereabouts of scores of students were unknown.

	After dispersing the demonstrators outside Rangoon's Shwetagon 
Pagoda at dawn yesterday, security forces erected barricades outside Ms 
Suu Kyi's house, forcing the cancellation of a scheduled news conference.

	Ms Suu Kyi's spokesman said the blockade had also forced a 
planned party meeting with about 200 league delegates from the southern 
district of Mergui to move to the nearby party headquarters.

	He said Ms Suu Kyi remained in good spirits despite the 
restrictions on her movements. "She has been througth this before but she 
is very strong, as always," he said.

	In her telephone conversation with Sir Sonny Ramphal, Ms Suu Kyi 
said the regime was stepping up its harassment and intimidation of her 
supporters.

	"We as a party are subjected to so much repression that it is 
almost unbelievable," she said.

	Ms Suu Kyi, who has previously called for economic sanctions 
against the regime, said she would welcome "the moral and practical 
support of right-thinking people".

	The United State Government yesterday warned the ruling State Law 
and Order Restoration Council not to harm any of those involved in the 
latest demonstrations.

	A State Department spokesman, Mr Nicholas Burns, called on the 
regime to engage in "a systematic conversation" with the NLD and the 
student movement about the future of the country.

[By Mark Baker, South-East Asia correspondent, Bangkok (5 December 1996)].

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