Myanmar Opposition Leader Blocked

[RANGOONP@xxxxxxx]

Myanmar Opposition Leader Blocked

 .c The Associated Press 

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Myanmar's military threw up barbed wire barricades
and placed sand bags around the car of democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi
today, stopping her from meeting with her political party outside the capital.

As evening fell, Suu Kyi, an aide and her driver were still engaged in a
standoff with the military about 32 miles west of Yangon at a village named
Anyarsu, high-ranking members of her party and military officials said. 

This is the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner's third attempt this month to travel
outside of Yangon to meet members of her party, the National League for
Democracy. 

The military government, which says Suu Kyi is neither under house arrest nor
other unlawful restrictions, has stopped her on the road each time. On one
occasion, more than 30 soldiers lifted her white sedan with her inside it, and
turned it around to face Yangon. 

The government has accused Suu Kyi and her party's leadership of trying to
destabilize the country and create confusion with her journeys. 

On the previous two trips on July 7 and 20, a compromise was reached where the
military brought the party member Suu Kyi was attempting to meet to her car. 

Suu Kyi intended today to travel to Bassein, 100 miles west of Yangon in a
region where local authorities have a reputation of being more repressive than
in other parts of Myanmar, also known as Burma. 

Her goal each trip was to meet with members of her party voted into parliament
in a 1990 election the military refused to honor despite pledging before the
poll it would hand over power to the winners. 

The party has said authorities constantly harass its members, and many have
been jailed, forced into exile or pressured to resign from the party. 

The military denies the charges of harassment and says it never intended to
hand over power to the election winners. 

AP-NY-07-24-98 1047EDT