[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index ][Thread Index ]

AP: 05/21/97 Burma Arresting Suu Ky



Subject: AP: 05/21/97 Burma Arresting Suu Kyi Supporters

                         Burma Arresting
                         Suu Kyi Supporters

                         Wednesday, May 21, 1997 4:31 am EDT

                         RANGOON, Burma (AP) -- Burma's military
                         government has begun arresting supporters of
                         pro-democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi to
                         break up another attempted meeting of her
                         political party, one of her aides said today.

                         Several of Suu Kyi's party members are taking
                         refuge in her lakeside Rangoon compound in
                         hopes of avoiding arrest, said Kyi Maung, vice
                         chairman of the National League for
                         Democracy.

                         Burmese intelligence officials, who spoke only
                         on condition of anonymity, confirmed that
                         arrests were taking place but would not say
                         how many democratic activists had been
                         detained.

                         ``Arrests of several NLD supporters and
                         members of parliament have started in various
                         parts of the country,'' Kyi Maung said.

                         The sweep is taking place on the day U.S.
                         economic sanctions came into effect against
                         Burma because of the military's stepped-up
                         repression against the democracy movement led
                         by Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel Peace
                         Prize-winner.

                         The events appear to be a replay of the mass
                         arrests of Suu Kyi's supporters ahead of a
                         similar party congress in May 1996.

                         Diplomats said on condition of anonymity that
                         arrests were taking place in Mandalay, Sagaing
                         and Irawaddy Divisions plus Mon State, all
                         far-flung provinces of Burma.

                         Party leaders have told members to stay home
                         and not attempt to make to Rangoon for the
                         congress.

                         Attempts to reach Suu Kyi were unsuccessful.
                         Her telephone line has been cut by the
                         authorities and troops have been blocking the
                         roads to her home for several months.

                         Although diplomats and supporters are
                         occasionally allowed in to see her, aides
                         describe the restrictions on her movements and
                         contacts as virtual house arrest.

                         The party congress, scheduled to begin May
                         27, was meant to mark the seventh anniversary
                         of the 1990 national elections the military
                         refused to honor.

                         Suu Kyi's party won 82 percent of the seats in a
                         parliament the military would not allow to
                         convene. Suu Kyi did not run in the poll
                         because she was already under house arrest at
                         the time.

                         She spent six years under house arrest from
                         1989 to 1995.

                         Military intelligence officials said during last
                         year's arrests that they feared Suu Kyi and her
                         supporters were intending to set up a ``parallel
                         government.''

                         NLD officials said they had no such design,
                         knowing it would provoke a crackdown.

                         A crackdown came anyway, in which 262 of
                         Suu Kyi's supporters were arrested. Although
                         most were released after one or two weeks,
                         more than two dozen were held and later given
                         long prison terms.

                         Among those sentenced was Win Htein, Suu
                         Kyi's personal secretary. Never sentenced, but
                         never released, was her press secretary and
                         cousin, Aye Win, son of one of Burma's
                         independence martyrs.

                         Suu Kyi's party has survived several
                         crackdowns in the past year. In November, her
                         motorcade was attacked by a government-paid
                         mob wielding sticks, chains and crowbars.

                            ? Copyright 1997 The Associated Press

                                     Back to the top