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Myanmar junta allows Suu Kyi to mee



 Myanmar junta allows Suu Kyi to meet official 
08:44 a.m. Jul 08, 1998 Eastern 

By Rajan Moses 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Myanmar's military government said it had allowed
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to meet a party member at a northern
village on Wednesday after preventing her from doing so on Tuesday. 

Security officials had on Tuesday stopped the National League for Democracy
(NLD) party leader Suu Kyi and three others traveling with her by car at
Shwe Mya Yar village, about 80 km (50 miles) north of Yangon. 

The junta prevented her from continuing to northern Min Hla township, about
150 km (90 miles) away from the capital, to meet the party member, saying
it was for her own security and to prevent her from creating political
unrest. 

Suu Kyi and her party, including NLD chairman Aung Shwe, remained overnight
at the village hoping to meet the party member, Hla Hla Moe of Min Hla
township, party sources said. 

``Arrangements were made by local authorities for Daw Hla Hla Moe to come
to Shwe Mya Yar village on July 8 morning to meet with the party. Later on,
after the meeting, both parties left the venue,'' a government statement
obtained by Reuters said. 

NLD and diplomatic sources in Yangon said Suu Kyi had returned to Yangon
around mid-morning. Comment was not immediately available from the NLD. 

The statement from the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC)
said rumors had been circulated by the opposition that unrest and violence
could be expected in Myanmar on Matryr's Day on July 19 and on August 8,
the 10th anniversary of 1988 student street protests, which the military
crushed. 

Suu Kyi, the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize winner, has been demanding since May
that the junta convene parliament comprising elected representatives of the
aborted May 1990 polls. 

The 1990 polls were swept by the NLD but the ruling military ignored the
result. 

The NLD and Suu Kyi, who was released from six years of house arrest in
mid-1995, sought the convening of parliament by August 21. 

The junta has rejected Suu Kyi's demand and threatened her with legal
action for her statements, which it said hampered the drafting of a new
national constitution by a government-appointed National Convention. 

The United States on Tuesday condemned the travel restriction imposed on
Suu Kyi by the junta and said it had violated her basic rights of freedom
of movement. 

Thailand said on Wednesday that it was concerned by the escalating
political tensions in Myanmar and urged all sides involved in the conflict
to exercise restraint. 

The junta earlier this week restricted movements of NLD representatives in
townships to prevent them from fomenting unrest ahead of the planned
opening of some closed institutions of higher learning some time next
month. 

The institutions were closed in December 1996 after student protests
against the military government. 

The government statement said it regretted that the NLD had put on ``war
paint'' and was ``deliberately trying to create a head-on collision and
confrontation with the government.'' 

It said the NLD was trying to step up its political agitation to disrupt
the planned reopening of the shut colleges. 

Suu Kyi and her party were colluding with some western governments to
undermine investment, tourism and other humanitarian assistance to the
people of Myanmar, it added. 

It warned the NLD to stop pushing the government into reacting violently to
the party's confrontational activities. 

A Yangon-based diplomat said the opposition had turned up the heat on the
government to test how far it would go in curbing the NLD's activities. But
the situation in Yangon remained calm with no signs of stepped up security
as rumored, he added. 

``It is difficult to say now if there may be trouble but definitely the
opposition is testing how far the government will go,'' he said.