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The Straits Time : Junta lifts bloc



The Straits Times
 AUG 2 1998
Junta lifts blockade of Suu Kyi's home 

YANGON -- Myanmar's ruling military lifted a road blockade that stopped
supporters of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from seeing her on Friday
and early yesterday, witnesses said. 

They added that a small group of members of her National League for
Democracy (NLD) was allowed access to the compound of her lakeside
residence in central Yangon, but they could not estimate the number of
people seeing her. 

Witnesses said a previous no-entry signpost near the junction was also
relocated deeper on University Avenue, to a spot closer to her residence. 

Local residents said yesterday that they saw no signs that the government
had tightened security enforcement around the NLD headquarters, which is
about a five-minute drive from her house. 

She was recovering from dehydration after a six-day sit-in protest in her
car in a village on the outskirts of Yangon. 

A government statement on Friday said Myanmar was not ready to meet her
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. 

Elsewhere, the capital was in the grip of increased security as the city
braced itself for an escalation of political tension ahead of a
opposition-set deadline for Parliament to meet. 

Hundreds of riot police were deployed across Yangon and at key bridges and
other strategic locations, residents said. 

Police had stopped some senior foreign diplomats and others from visiting
Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, but no other incidents were reported and the mood
stayed calm, envoys said. 

Meanwhile, in the United Nations, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is
planning to send a special envoy to Myanmar in mid-September at the
earliest, a UN spokesman said on Friday. 

Mr Juan Carlos Brandt, asked by reporters about a personal intervention by
the UN chief following requests from the US and Australia, noted that Mr
Annan was already planning to send Peruvian diplomat Alvaro de Soto to
Yangon. 

On Friday, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said she and Australian
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer had "urged" Mr Annan to become
"personally involved" in the effort to persuade the country's military
leaders to open a dialogue with Ms Aung San Suu Kyi's party. Reuters, AFP