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REPORT:NLD WANTS TO REJOIN





                         Report: Burma Party Wants to
                         Rejoin 

                         Tuesday, June 24, 1997; 5:49 a.m. EDT 

                         RANGOON, Burma (AP) -- The political party headed by
                         pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi wants to
rejoin the
                         military-run convention to draft a new constitution
for Burma,
                         state-run newspapers said today. 

                         The National League for Democracy walked out of the
                         convention in 1995, criticizing it as undemocratic.
Convention
                         leaders then expelled the party, and the government
has said
                         there is no procedure to allow it to rejoin. 

                         Commentaries that ran in all three Burmese papers
said a
                         resolution passed last month by the democracy party's
                         executive committee called for it ``to rejoin the
national
                         convention and to conclude the convention honorably.'' 

                         It was unclear whether the party had formally asked
to rejoin
                         the convention. Suu Kyi and party leaders could not be
                         reached for comment because the military regime has
cut their
                         phones lines. 

                         The convention has met intermittently since 1993,
but there
                         have been no meetings for more than a year.
Diplomats and
                         analysts suspect that several participating groups
are unhappy
                         with the charter being drafted. 

                         Democracy activists have labeled the convention a sham
                         because most delegates were handpicked by the
military, and
                         the constitution they are drafting enshrines
military rule. 

                         The military has ruled Burma, which it calls
Myanmar, since
                         1962. Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace laureate and daughter of
                         independence hero Aung San, was thrust into
prominence by
                         the 1988 uprising against military rule that was
crushed when
                         troops killed more than 3,000 protesters. 

                         Her democracy party won a 1990 election that the
military
                         refused to honor. Though it won 82 percent of that
vote, it had
                         only about 15 percent of the seats at the
constitutional
                         convention. 

                         The commentaries in today's state-run newspapers
derided
                         Suu Kyi and her party for seeking readmittance to the
                         convention. 

                         ``Why and for what reasons do you want to rejoin
the national
                         convention, which the political stunt star wife of
the Englishman
                         (Suu Kyi) and her masters had slandered and
opposed,'' said
                         one editorial written by a high-ranking
intelligence officer under
                         a pseudonym. 

                         On Monday, the same author wrote that Suu Kyi was a
puppet
                         of the CIA. 

                         ``The national convention is not a licenseless
bootleg liquor
                         shop where you can go in and come out without
discipline,'' he
                         said. 

                         Diplomats have said that relations between Suu Kyi
and the
                         regime deteriorated sharply after her party left
the convention. 

                         The regime stepped up arrests of party members,
prevented
                         Suu Kyi from delivering her weekend public
addresses, paid a
                         mob to attack her motorcade with sticks and pipes,
and has
                         restricted people from visiting her home. 

                         From 1989 to 1995, Suu Kyi was under house arrest
for her
                         political activities.