Reuters : Myanmar accuses opponents

[hlaing@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Myanmar accuses opponents of destabilising tactics 
12:36 a.m. Aug 08, 1998 Eastern 

By Aung Hla Tun 

YANGON, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Myanmar's military government accused the
opposition, Western media and governments on Saturday of trying to
destabilise the country on the 10th anniversary of a bloody crackdown on
pro-democracy activists. 

The powerful Secretary One of the ruling State Peace and Development
Council (SPDC), Khin Nyunt, said in comments carried in the state-owned
English-language daily New Light of Myanmar that ``axe-handles and
destructive elements'' were trying to undermine the government. The word
``ax-handle'' is frequently used by the loca media for those believed to be
opposing the government. 

Saturday was the 10th anniversary of the massacre of opposition protesters
on the steps of Yangon city hall on August 8, 1988 and pro-democracy
campaigners had said they would mark the occasion with protests against the
military government. 

Myanmar opposition leader and 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu
Kyi used the eve of the anniversary to promise to keep fighting for
democracy in her country. 

Suu Kyi, daughter of Myanmar's national hero and founding father Aung San,
told Britain's Channel Four News on Friday evening she would not be
intimidated by the military. 

``I don't think there will be anybody in Burma (Myanmar) who does not
remember what happened 10 years ago tomorrow -- painfully and with deep
regret,'' she said. ``We are determined to do everything we can to make
good our promise to the people that we are going to bring democracy to
Burma.'' 

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. 

Myanmar exiles demonstrated on Friday evening in several cities to demand
that the government convene a parliament of members elected at a poll in
May 1990. 

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

The military government has accused the opposition of trying to stir up
trouble around the anniversary. 

``At present, some big colonialist countries, foreign news agencies under
their control and internal destructionists are spreading fabrications that
the situation in Myanmar is becoming tense, leading toward violence,'' Kyin
Nyunt said in the newspaper on Saturday. 

``Axe-handles and destructive elements under the pretext of democracy and
human rights are attempting to obstruct the government's endeavours towards
ensuring food and social needs of its people,'' said Khin Nyunt, who is the
Myanmar government's intelligence chief. 

Witnesses said Yangon was calm on Saturday morning with few signs of extra
security in the city except for beefed-up check points around Yangon
University, close to Suu Kyi's home. 

Witnesses said government guards remained at her home. 

But Saturday is market day in Yangon and diplomats said last week they
could not rule out the possibility of some snap demonstrations in the
capital to mark the anniversary. 

In an apparent attempt to undermine the opposition's campaign, the
government offered two concessions on Friday. 

The government invited the NLD for talks with deputy Minister for Home
Affairs Myint Maung and said it was prepared to comply with a request from
Suu Kyi that it withdraw its guards from the grounds of her Yangon house. 

But the invitation for talks excluded Suu Kyi and two other NLD members and
the party said it could not talk under those conditions, a government
spokesman said. 

Diplomats said the offer of talks without the charismatic Suu Kyi was bound
to be turned down. 

Government security men were posted in Suu Kyi's compound at her request
when she was released from six years of house arrest in 1995. The NLD has
not said why Suu Kyi wanted them removed. 

Suu Kyi's father led the country's independence movement in the 1940s, but
was assassinated in 1947. Burma gained independence from Britain the
following year.