AFP-Opposition stand-off, foreign d

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Opposition stand-off, foreign detainees mean little to Myanmar: analysts
Thu 13 Aug 98 - 12:44 GMT 

BANGKOK, Aug 13 (AFP) - Stand-offs with Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu
Kyi and strong criticism from foreign powers mean little to Myanmar's junta
as long as its people remain satisified with their meagre lives, analysts
said Thursday.
"Lots of people don't even have TVs, never mind satellite dishes (to
receive foreign broadcasts)," said one foreign analyst based in Yangon,
although many listen to foreign radio broadcasts, including in their own
language.
"Outside the cities, they don't know about these conflicts and, if they
did, they couldn't care less. They are poor people and one woman in a
Toyota or a bunch of foreigners on a junket don't mean anything."
National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Aung San Suu Kyi was locked in a
roadside confrontation with officials for a second consecutive night
Thursday, while 18 foreign activists were spending their fifth day in
military custody for allegedly attempting to incite unrest.
Although many western governments oppose the junta and have expressed
strong support for Aung San Suu Kyi, some diplomats there said they were
concerned about her tactics and dismissed the foreign activists outright as
rabble-rousers.
"I think we are all a bit tired of the foreign detainees," said another
western diplomat.
"Okay, they made their point. But most of them are from Asia and they know
that discretion is the key."
Some of the foreigners who were detained Sunday were apprehended while
driving down major Yangon roads throwing leaflets from their taxis' windows
in support of human rights and democracy.
"Apart from anything else, it's littering," said the diplomat.
Bangkok-based organisers of the protest have denied the activists intended
to get arrested, but diplomats said they had serious doubts.
"As far as I know, they all arrived at basically the same time, they all
stayed at the same hotel and most of them were seen talking to foreign
journalists," added an official from an embassy whose nationals were not
involved in the incident.
The protestors wore pro-democracy t-shirts marking the 10th anniversary
Saturday of a military crack-down on pro-democracy demonstartors which left
thousands dead, according to unofficial tolls.
"If a group of Iraqis turned up in Washington doing the same sort of thing,
do you think the authorities there would just ignore it?," the diplomat
added.
"We don't know for sure, but it seems no Burmese were arrested at the same
time," they said, using the former name for citizens of Myanmar.
"That either means they were too scared -- which would account for some --
or that they didn't care, which would acccount for others."
With the country's economy in a shambles and the power and water supplies
even to Yangon and other cities erratic, Myanmar people had other things to
worry about in one of the poorest countries in the world.
"The currency is worth next to nothing, the price of rice is going up,"
said a diplomat at the embassy of another country in the region.
"There could be a shortage of rice if things don't work out this season.
"Food is the key issue, not politics. You could say food is politics."
Diplomats said Aung San Suu Kyi continued to enjoy a high level of 
support across the country, but much of that was due to the popularity of
her father, independence her Genral Aung San.
He was assassinated, along with his fledgling cabinet, just months before
Myanmar became independent from Britain in 1948.
"They love her," added one. "A lot of them don't know what she is talking
about but they love her for who she is and the hope she (presents).
"Most people don't understand what democracy is about, but they don't
understand what a junta is about, and they already have one of those."