Clash put off pro-democracy meet in

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Clash put off pro-democracy meet in Rangoon
The Asian Age (New Delhi), October 29, 1997.

Rangoon, Oct. 28: Burmese police scuffled with a dozen Aung San Suu Kyi
supporters earlier on Tuesday and prevent a meeting between them and the
Nobel peace Prize laureate, dishing hopes the military government was
becoming more lenient. As Ms. Suu Kyi motorcade approached to Mayangon
office the National League for Democracy about 9 am, about a dozen party
members rushed past police barricades toward her white sedan.

A scuff then broke out between the party members and Burmese
baton-wielding police, who had blocked off the road leading to the
office in Northern Rangoon to prevent the meeting.

Reporters, other party members and local resident were pushed away from
the scene by the police who denied the supporters, and were unable to
see the result of the incident. A government spokesman accused the of
being rigid and confrontational and said Ms. Suu Kyi was ignoring
requests by government security personal to hold any meeting inside her
compound for her own safety.

The incident dashed hoped by supporters of Ms. Suu Kyi's pro-democracy
movement that tensions between the democratic and the military
government were easing. The military government had allowed Ms. Suu
Kyi's party to hold its first congress in seven years at her home on
September 27. And last week, the junta let the Philippines foreign
minister Domingo Siazon to meet the Nobel laureate. He was the
highest-ranking government official from a Southeast Asia country ever
to meet her.

Ms. Suu Kyi was also permitted to visit an NLD office in a northern
suburb of Rangoon, on October 21, where she meet about 100 of members of
the wing of her party. She pledges that she would be making visit to all
the NLD office to recoganise the youth win of the party. Diplomatic in
Rangoon hailed the decision by the military government to ease the
severe restriction on Ms. Suu Kyi's ability to leave her home that have
been in force for more than a year. The government has severely
repressed any political opposition since coming to power in 1988.

An official of Mayangon branch of the NLD said the party had followed
government regulations and asked local officials for permission to hold
the meeting of the youth wing on Tuesday. But on Monday evening,
government officials denied the party's request on ground it could taken
advantage of by subversives. (AP)