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Junta steps up harassment 'to avert



South China Morning Post

Monday  July 6  1998

Burma 
Junta steps up harassment 'to avert collision' 

WILLIAM BARNES in Bangkok 
The Burmese military Government said yesterday it had increased its
harassment of the opposition to prevent it disrupting the opening of
universities with a "confrontation".

A military statement issued yesterday accused opposition leader Aung San
Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) of planning to
"exploit" the students on Friday with what the military described as a
"head-on collision" with the authorities.

Diplomats in Rangoon said the real reason for the junta's attacks was last
month's demand by the league that the disbanded parliament be reconvened by
August 21.

Ms Aung San Suu Kyi's party won the majority of seats in a 1990 election.
The result was ignored by the military.

Opposition students in exile claimed last week that up to 40 members of the
opposition had been detained or forced to sign pledges that restricted
their movement.

Yesterday's statement by the military demanded that all elected NLD
politicians outside Rangoon report to the local authorities.

It said the move was to "avoid an unnecessary and unwanted head-on
collision, confrontation and instability and agitation to coincide with the
eventual resumption of university classes".