[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 Ky
- From: Winston_Lee@xxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 07:08:00
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