SCMP : Junta alert over anniversary

[hlaing@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

South China Morning Post
Saturday  August 1  1998

Junta alert over anniversary 

WILLIAM BARNES in Bangkok and Agencies 
Scores of police were deployed across the capital Rangoon yesterday amid
escalating political tension ahead of next Saturday's 10th anniversary of
the crackdown on democracy demonstrators which left thousands dead,
witnesses said.

There were also fears that harsh restrictions would be placed around
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to prevent her from carrying out her
threat to try "again and again" to travel and meet her political supporters
outside Rangoon.

The police, some with assault rifles and heavy machine-guns, were posted at
junctions, bridges and other strategic locations.

Officials earlier said they were on heightened alert because students
planned a protest action to mark the anniversary on August 8 of the 1988
crackdown which resulted in a massacre.

"Things look quiet but there is a tremendous air of expectation. People
seem to have quickly picked up that this is a bad week for the regime," a
Rangoon-based diplomat was quoted as saying. Some residents reported that
extra troops were being brought into the capital.

Ms Aung San Suu Kyi spent the day recovering from dehydration and fever
after a six-day ordeal trapped in her sedan following her bid to beat the
junta's restrictions by visiting National League for Democracy (NLD)
supporters three hours' drive west of Rangoon.

Security forces who blocked the vehicle 60km from the capital forcibly
ended the stand-off late on Wednesday by "kidnapping me and stealing my
car" to drive it home, according to Ms Aung San Suu Kyi in a message
relayed to journalists on Thursday.

The next few weeks could be a nightmare of provocative anniversaries and
deadlines at a time when the population has already been pummelled by the
foundering economy.

Ten years ago next Saturday, on the day of a general strike, soldiers fired
machine-guns into crowds of demonstrators outside Rangoon City Hall.

The massacre has been burned into the nation's memory and is the most
potent of the dates associated with mass protests that swept the country a
decade ago. To add to the tension, the NLD has demanded that Parliament be
reconvened by no later than August 21, along the lines of the 1990 general
election that was ignored by the military when the opposition won.

A Government statement said Burma would not be ready to meet Ms Aung San
Suu Kyi's demand for freedom to exercise political rights until the unity
of the 135 ethnic groups in the nation became stronger and people's basic
needs were met and catered for.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said in Sydney
yesterday that America and Australia had asked UN Secretary-General Kofi
Annan to personally persuade the junta to open talks with the opposition.