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Burmese opposition party says membe



Subject: Burmese opposition party says members' arrests top 300 

Subject: Burmese opposition party says members' arrests top 300 

   BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) _ Burma's main opposition group said
Monday the military government had detained more than 300 of its
senior members in an effort to stop it from holding a party
congress.
   Tin Oo, a vice chairman of the National League for Democracy,
said by telephone from Rangoon that 316 members from outside the
capital had been detained to prevent them from meeting Tuesday at
the Rangoon home of party leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
   Tuesday marks the seventh anniversary of parliamentary elections
in which the opposition won 82 percent of the vote. The military
government never allowed parliament to convene.
   Some 50-60 of those detained are elected representatives.
   As the league over the past week has been reporting mounting
numbers of detentions, the government has been responding with
cryptic statements that appear to be denials. But their wording
leaves open the possibility that the party members have been
detained without being charged.
   Tin Oo said the 316 detainees did not include party members who
obeyed officials' requests not to travel to Rangoon for the
meeting.
   In one case, he said, a party township vice chairman from
Lemyethna, about 56 kilometers (90 miles) northwest of Rangoon,
managed to reach the capital only to find that authorities had
responded by taking away his wife and daughter.
   He also said party chairman Aung Shwe is prepared to answer a
challenge, posed in several of the government's statements over the
past week, to provide a list of those detained.
   He may send the list, along with a protest, directly to junta
chairman Senior Gen. Than Shwe, said Tin Oo.
   Tin Oo said 150 party members, including several from out of
town, met at the party's Rangoon division headquarters Monday.
   The detained party members did not include any from Rangoon, he
said.
   But a government statement Monday said a township party
secretary from Rangoon, Myo Khin, had been convicted last Friday of
fraudulently altering official documents and was sentenced to four
years in prison.
   ``This incident can very well be exploited by the NLD for their
propaganda purpose and raise the number of so-called detainees by
another 50 to make their head count go up to 300 or conveniently
accuse the government of beginning to detain or oppress party
members'' from the Rangoon area, it said.
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