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Reuters : Myanmar government offers



Myanmar government offers opposition concessions 
11:15 a.m. Aug 07, 1998 Eastern 

By Aung Hla Tun 

YANGON, Myanmar (Reuters) - Myanmar's military government offered
concessions to the opposition led by Aung San Suu Kyi Friday, the day
before the 10th anniversary of a bloody army crackdown on pro-democracy
campaigners. 

The government invited the National League for Democracy (NLD) for talks
with deputy Minister for Home Affairs Myint Maung at the ministry Saturday.


But the invitation excluded Suu Kyi and two other senior NLD members from
the talks without giving an explanation. 

The NLD said it could not accept the conditions and turned down the talks,
a spokesman for the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) told
Reuters. 

In another unexpected gesture, the military-dominated SPDC said it was
prepared to comply with a request from Suu Kyi that it withdraw its guards
from the grounds of her Yangon house. 

Suu Kyi had asked the authorities Thursday to take the guards off her
lakeside property with immediate effect. 

``The government is happy to comply with her request and discussions are
now under way,'' the government said. 

Earlier Friday, witnesses said the number of security guards at Suu Kyi's
home had been doubled to about 15. 

One diplomat said the offers by the government appeared to be attempts to
calm tension between the two sides ahead of the anniversary Saturday of
August 8, 1988, when the army opened fire on demonstrators on the steps of
Yangon city hall. 

``They want to diffuse the tension which has built up in recent weeks. It
is significant that the offer is for talks tomorrow,'' said one diplomat. 

But others said the offers looked like an attempt to rob the NLD of issues
it could use in its campaign for democracy and human rights. The offer of
talks without the NLD's charismatic leader Suu Kyi was bound to be turned
down, they said. 

Suu Kyi is the daughter of Myanmar's national hero and founding father Aung
San, who led the country's independence struggle in the 1940s, but was
assassinated in 1947. Burma gained independence from Britain the following
year. 

Witnesses said the guards were still in place on Suu Kyi's property Friday
evening and showed no signs of leaving. 

Myanmar opposition activists have been marking the eve of the anniversary
with protests to demand the government convene a parliament of members
elected at a poll in May 1990. 

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won the poll by a big margin
but the result was ignored by the military. 

In the Thai capital, Bangkok, candle-lit demonstrations began Friday
evening to remember those who died in 1988. 

About 200 Myanmar student exiles chanted slogans and held up pictures of
Suu Kyi in the road outside the Myanmar embassy. 

Opposition figures say several thousand people were killed in the crackdown
which followed the 1988 massacre. 

The government says the death toll was only a few dozen. 

But the government clearly recognizes the potency of the anniversary and
issued stern warnings in one state-owned newspaper Friday against unlawful
actions. 

The Myanmar-language Myanma Ahlin newspaper, a key mouthpiece of the SPDC,
warned Suu Kyi in a commentary to ``give up ill intentions'' this month. 

``Aung San Suu Kyi should not take advantage of the government's patience
and magnanimity,'' it said. ``You shouldn't let yourself go beyond the law,
no matter how great the external incitement is,'' it added. 

Guards have been posted in Suu Kyi's compound since she was released from
six years' house arrest in 1995. 

At the time of her release, Suu Kyi said she wanted the government's guards
on the premises for her own safety. 

The NLD has not said why the guards had been asked to go but the request
was made shortly after a six-day car protest by Suu Kyi was forcibly ended
by government security men. 

Suu Kyi left her residence for the first time in a week late Friday and
made a 40-minute visit to the Yangon NLD headquarters, witnesses said.