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Reuters : Suu Kyi, Myanmars tough d



Suu Kyi, Myanmars tough democracy advocate 
04:42 a.m. Aug 06, 1998 Eastern 

By Rajan Moses 

BANGKOK, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Myanmars indomitable opposition leader, Aung San
Suu Kyi, has upped the ante in her decade-old campaign for democracy and is
chafing at her political shackles. 

The slightly built Suu Kyi embarrassed the nations military rulers late
last month by staging a six-day car sit-in on the outskirts of the capital,
Yangon, to protest against the authorities refusal to allow her to freely
travel the country. 

The government forcibly removed her from the protest site, a rickety bidge,
and drove her back to her home in Yangon as the worlds major powers
criticised the rulers heavy hand. 

To underline her commitment to her cause, Suu Kyi, who was said to have
become ill during the sit-in, conveyed a direct, no-nonsense message to the
world via a senior member of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party.


``She sent word to this news conference that she will go out again as soon
she becomes well enough to travel,'' the party member told reporters. 

Three years after she was released from lengthy house arrest, the 1991
Nobel Peace Prize winner appears no closer to her dream of a democratic
Myanmar, but she refuses to give up. 

The military-dominated, ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC)
has tried to put hurdles at her every turn. 

Myanmar, formerly Burma, has been ruled by generals since 1962. 

The SPDC has restricted her internal travel, cut off ties with foreign
media at times and detained and harassed party members. But to no avail. 

Suu Kyi has made a reappearance each time, finding non-violent ways to let
the world know she is still around, rallying support to end what she calls
military abuse of human rights and curbs on political party movements. 

Her message to the military is loud and clear: she wants to open a dialogue
with it and Myanmars ethnic minorities to try to end the nations political
stalemate. 

Her request has been turned down each time. 

The military has refused to recognise her, calling her by her married name
``Mrs Aris,'' and accused her of being a paid agent of the British and U.S.
governments to create trouble in Myanmar. 

Suu Kyis NLD, however, has stood steadfastly behind her. It has insisted
there will be no talks with the military unless she is included in any
dialogue. 

The SPDC, on the other hand, says she is a rabble-rouser who wants
Western-style democracy when Myanmar is not yet ready for it. 

>From mid-1988, when she emerged to head the democracy movement, the
sharp-tongued Suu Kyi has been the rallying point for most Myanmar
activists out to break the grip of the military. 

The military has ruled for nearly 36 years with an iron fist and seen the
resource-rich nation sink into poverty. 

When millions took to the streets in 1988 to protest against military
repression, the army crushed the demonstrations, leaving thousands dead or
in jail. 

On her return to Yangon in April 1988 to nurse her dying mother, Suu Kyi
got caught up in the student-led revolt and began travelling around the
country speaking of democracy. 

In early 1989, she broke a virtual taboo by publicly attacking officially
retired military strongman Ne Win as the source of Myanmars ills. 

This sealed her popular appeal, but also her fate -- she was placed under
house arrest on July 19, 1989, and remained there for about six years. 

Despite her arrest, Suu Kyis NLD won a landslide election victory in May
1990, winning over 80 percent of seats. 

But the military refused to recognise the result and silenced the NLD
through arrests and intimidation until Suu Kyi was freed. 

In late May, when the military allowed the NLD, in a surprise decision, to
commemorate the eighth aniversary of the 1990 election, she seized the
chance to put the junta on its heels. 

She called for the convening of parliament comprising elected
representatives from the 1990 polls, and her NLD fixed an August 21
deadline. The military turned down the request. 

``It is necessary to implement the results of the elections after holding
them,'' she told a party gathering. ``Failure to implement the result of
the 1990 elections will be an insult to, and cheating of, the people.'' 

``As a first step, parliament must be convened,'' she said. 

Since then, she and her party have come under closer surveillance and
retaliation of all sorts from the military. 

Suu Kyi was born in Yangon, then Rangoon, in 1945, the daughter of the
nations independence hero Aung San who was assassinated in 1947. 

She was educated in Myanmar and in India where her mother was an
ambassador. She later studied at Oxford and worked after that with the
United Nations in New York. 

In 1972, she married British academic Michael Aris and they raised two sons
while moving between Bhutan, India and Japan. 

Suu Kyi, who says arrests for her and other activists are an ``occupational
hazard'' of the democracy movement, calls the struggle of the Myanmar
people one of freedom from fear. 

``For me, real freedom is freedom from fear and unless you can live free
from fear you cannot live a dignified human life.''