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Burma Opposition Misses Meeting



The Associated Press 

RANGOON, Burma (12/22/96, AP) -- For the fourth consecutive weekend,
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi did not appear Sunday to address
supporters who waited for her at an intersection near her home. 

Burma's military rulers have since the end of September intermittently
thrown up road blocks leading to her lakeside villa, thus preventing crowds
from gathering to hear her speeches. 

About 300 supporters waited for more than an hour at the Goodliffe Junction,
1.2 miles from her blockaded home. In recent weeks, Suu Kyi has driven from
her house to briefly speak to supporters gathered at the intersection. 

``Whether she comes to meet us or not, we will wait for her every week,''
said Ms. Khin Nu, 48, who said she had earlier regularly attended Suu Kyi's
weekend rallies. 

Authorities had earlier said that any meetings with supporters could only
take place inside Suu Kyi's compound. But the Nobel Peace Prize winner has
insisted that the ``spontaneous public rallies'' would be held outside her
villa. 

In recent weeks, the number of supporters and others who have gathered at
the junction have dwindled. On Sunday they left peacefully, one of them
saying, ``See you next week.'' 

Suu Kyi has complained of being ``wrongfully restrained'' from leaving her
home, where she spent six years under house arrest until being released in
mid-1995. 

She was basically confined to her house again earlier this month as students
staged the biggest demonstrations since 1988, when a nationwide
pro-democracy was brutally suppressed by the military.