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URGENT NEWS - Myanmar Rebel Group S
Myanmar Rebel Group Says Political Scene Explosive
Reuters
06-JUL-98
YANGON, July 6 (Reuters) - A Myanmar rebel group said on
Monday that
new curbs on elected members of opposition leader Aung San
Suu Kyi's
National League for Democracy (NLD) could be politically
explosive.
``The present state of the country is quite disturbing.
There is a likelihood of
it exploding soon,'' said General Bo Mya, the president of
the ethnic Karen
National Union (KNU), in a statement obtained by Reuters.
He also said there were only three months worth of food
stocks left in the
country.
``There is an impending danger of the country sliding into
serious shortage
of food and general calamity unparalleled in history. We
have learnt there is
not enough stock of food even for three months,'' he said.
He did not
elaborate.
The KNU is fighting Yangon for autonomy for the Karen state
and is the most
formidable of a handful of ethnic groups conducting
guerrilla warfare against
Myanmar.
Bo Mya was referring to stepped up military vigilance of NLD
MPs elected in
the 1990 polls. The NLD swept the elections, but the result
was ignored by
the military.
The ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) on
Sunday
confirmed that it had ordered elected NLD politicians
outside the capital of
Yangon to report to local authorities.
The SPDC said the order was necessary to prevent the party
from disrupting
reopening of universities closed following student unrest in
December 1996.
A government source said that the closed universities and
other educational
institutions were due to reopen in August.
The NLD protested against the latest military curbs and
demanded that they
be lifted immediately and unconditionally.
``The SPDC has applied outdated laws to impose restrictions
on NLD
members...as the people representatives who were elected by
people from
the May 1990 election. NLD demands the military junta
immediately and
unconditionally lift the recent restrictions,'' the party
said in a statement.
The latest political rift between the NLD and the military
follows a new
demand by the party that the SPDC convene parliament by
August 21
comprising MPs elected in the 1990 polls.
The NLD has accused the military of abusing human rights and
curbing its
political activities.
The KNU's General Bo Mya said in an open letter to SPDC
chairman, Senior
General Than Shwe, that the junta should comply with the
NLD's demand.
``We are calling on the SPDC to comply with the demand of
the NLD for
convening of parliament,'' he said, adding the situation in
Myanmar was
delicate because of the current political feuds.
The SPDC has in the past rejected the NLD's demand for
reconvening of
parliament and said that such calls obstructed the work of
the authorities in
drafting a new national constitution via a
government-appointed National
Convention.
The NLD withdrew from the convention in 1995, calling it a
sham, and the
body has not met for nearly two years.
The SPDC also threatened to take legal action against those
who disrupted
the drafting of the new charter in a veiled warning to Suu
Kyi and her party.
A similar threat was issued in 1989 prior to Suu Kyi's six
years of house
arrest.
Suu Kyi, 53, the 1993 Nobel Peace prize winner, has
repeatedly demanded
dialogue with the military since being released from house
arrest.