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Reuters : Suu Kyi in test of wills



Suu Kyi in test of wills with Myanmar junta 
06:58 a.m. Jul 26, 1998 Eastern 

YANGON, July 26 (Reuters) - Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who
was stopped by authorities at southwestern Anyarsu Village from making a
trip by car out of the capital Yangon, has refused their request for her to
return home. 

Her National League for Democracy (NLD) party said that she had spent two
nights in her car after being stopped on Friday in Anyarsu about 64 km (20
miles) from Yangon. 

``The government will be responsible if something goes wrong with her
health. She did not intend to hold mass demonstrations in making her
trips,'' an NLD official told Reuters. 

The NLD had said on Friday that she was on her way to a western township to
meet party supporters when she was stopped. This was the third time she was
blocked from making trips to townships after being stopped on July 7 and
20. 

The ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) said in a statement
that Suu Kyi and two drivers in the car had been stopped because she did
not have her security team with her on the trip. It added that her
movements might cause political disturbances that Myanmar could ill-afford
at this time. 

``This morning (Sunday), the request of the relevant authorities (for Suu
Kyi) to return to Yangon was again ignored,'' the statement said. 

``Obviously it is their own rigid and confrontational policy which has made
then spend the night in the car on their own free will,'' it added. 

``The government on its part...has been avoiding a collision course
initiated by the NLD leadership,'' it said. 

It said that Suu Kyi and the NLD had turned a deaf ear to the authorities
appeal to them not to disrupt government moves to reopen sometime next
month institutions of higher learning that were closed after student unrest
in December 1996. 

On the previous two occasions she was prevented from going to the
townships, the authorities made other arrangements for her to meet the
people she wanted to see. 

But this time, Suu Kyi had refused to tell the local authorities where she
was going or give details of her trip. 

Previously, the SPDC has said that it had cut her trips because of a lack
of security for her and on fears some anti-government elements might harm
her and blame the government for it. 

Confrontation between the NLD and the SPDC has intensified in recent weeks
with the opposition demanding the government convene parliament by August
21. The NLD swept the last general election in May 1990, but the military
ignored the results and has refused to convene parliament. 

In retaliation, the SPDC has clamped down on the movements of opposition
MPs in the townships, confining them there and requiring them to report
twice daily to security officials.