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CNN News on Burma (5 Dec 1996).
Burma's Suu Kyi allowed to leave her house
******************************************
December 5, 1996
RANGOON, Burma (CNN) -- Burma's pro-democracy
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was released from
at least
two days confinement at her Rangoon home on
Thursday. Later,
she attended a wedding and met with leaders of her
National
League for Democracy party to commemorate the
anniversary of a
1920 student rebellion.
Since student-led anti-government demonstrations
earlier this
week, authorities had blocked the road to the Nobel
Peace Prize
winner's house, where the National Day celebration
was scheduled
to be held.
Hope for democracy
******************
Early Thursday they also closed the road to the
NLD's Rangoon
headquarters in an apparent effort to block a
meeting from being
held there.
Instead, Suu Kyi met with 250 other party members at
the home
of Tin Oo, a senior party leader. She and other
party officials gave
speeches and the group sang songs in praise of those
who fought
for Burmese independence.
Suu Kyi thanked cheering supporters for attending
despite "threats
and intimidation."
"I firmly believe that we will be able to set up a
democratic
government one day," she said.
She told reporters she had been illegally held at
home. "But today I
can come back (out)," she said. Party leaders had
earlier called her
confinement "virtual house arrest."
Increasing crackdowns
*********************
Before the National Day celebration -- which marked the
anniversary of a student rebellion against British
rule in 1920 --
Suu Kyi attended a friend's wedding at a Chinese
restaurant for
about 30 minutes, people at the wedding said.
The government increasingly has
cracked down on Suu Kyi and her
party in recent months. Roadblocks
have gone up and down around her
home, preventing the weekend
rallies
she used to hold before
thousands of
supporters -- nearly the only
contact
with large numbers of people
she had
been allowed.
Suu Kyi has denied any direct link to this week's
student
demonstrations, other than a shared opposition to
injustice.
Threat?
*******
Burma's military rulers used the 76th anniversary of
National Day
to publish an address in the government-controlled
newspapers
which contained a veiled threat to students.
"Just as the peasantry and the workers need to
produce goods
with further improved quality and quantity, so also
do students
need to work hard in discipline, without letting
anything mar
peaceful pursuit of education...," said General Than
Shwe,
chairman of the State Law and Order Restoration Council
(SLORC).
ASEAN urged against admitting Burma
***********************************
Suu Kyi urged the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations not to
grant Burma full membership as long as it is ruled
by the SLORC.
ASEAN said at the end of its summit in Jakarta,
Indonesia, on
Saturday that it would simultaneously admit Burma,
Laos and
Cambodia as full members of the seven-member group,
but did
not say when. The military has ruled Burma since
1962.
[CNN News, 5 December 1996].
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