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Suu Kyi says government kidnapped h



Myanmar's Suu Kyi says government kidnapped her

30 July 1998
Web posted at: 19:56 JST, Tokyo time (10:56 GMT) <Picture: Aung San Suu
Kyi>Aung San Suu Kyi   

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi today accused the
government of kidnapping her to end a six-day standoff, saying police held
her down, took the wheel of her car and forcibly drove her back to the
capital. 

The government admitted returning the democracy campaigner to the capital
against her will Wednesday evening, but has not explained its tactics. 

"The government had no choice but to take the initiative to break the
standoff by sending her to Yangon," government spokesman Col. Hla Min said
at a news conference today. 

With a feverish Suu Kyi lying in the back seat of her car, where she had
slept for five straight nights, two policewomen held her down and other
officers ejected two colleagues from the front seat, members of her party
said at a separate news conference today. 

Another officer took the wheel and drove the car from the bridge on a rural
road 20 miles west of the capital, to Yangon, they said. 

"I was kidnapped. They even stole my car," U Lwin, a member of Suu Kyi's
National League for Democracy, today quoted her as saying after she
returned home about 10:20 p.m. Wednesday. 

Party leaders said today Suu Kyi had been determined to continue the
standoff until the military government agreed to open a dialogue with her
and her party, something the generals have refused to do. 

Authorities had stopped her Friday morning as she attempted to drive to
Bassein to meet members of her party who won parliamentary elections in
1990 but were never allowed to take office because the government annulled
the vote. Other NLD member have been jailed. 

It was the third time this month the government has blocked Suu Kyi's
efforts to leave the capital for party meetings. The military has allowed
her to leave Yangon only once since her release from six years of house
arrest in July 1995. She visited a Buddhist monk that year in the eastern
city of Pa-an. 

After examining Suu Kyi today, her doctors said she had a large bruise on
her wrist, which they said was the result of rough police treatment, but
described her as being in good spirits. 

Asked today to describe the manner in which police ended the stalemate, Hla
Min told reporters to ask the opposition. 

Suu Kyi did not attend her party's news conference because "she is not well
enough. She is still very, very weak," said Tin Oo, NLD vice chairman,
adding that there had been no contact or negotiations between the military
and the party. 

Speaking in Sydney, Australia, today, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright called the government's actions "an unacceptable violation of
human rights" that would "only contribute to the further isolation of
Burma." 

Hla Min accused Suu Kyi of provoking the clash outside the capital so that
"Mrs. Albright could berate Myanmar and induce other governments to put
pressure on Myanmar." 

Suu Kyi's "objective has been achieved, and so it was time to break the
standoff," he said, adding the government had acted on the advice of Suu
Kyi's doctors. 

Party leaders vehemently denied that claim. Prior to her return, the
military told diplomats that the democracy leader's trip outside Yangon had
been stopped to avert possible disturbances, diplomatic sources said. 

Suu Kyi's party follows a policy of nonviolence, and no riots or other
unrest has been associated with her trips or public speeches. 

Since Suu Kyi emerged from house arrest, the government has installed
police checkpoints near her home, refused journalists entry and restricted
access by diplomats and party members. 

Democracy activists say harassment of her followers has increased in recent
months. 

The government refused a request in the middle of the standoff this week by
seven Western nations that U.S. and Japanese diplomats in Myanmar be
allowed to see Suu Kyi.