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AFP-Aung San Suu Kyi confident of e



Aung San Suu Kyi confident of eventual victory
Fri 14 Aug 98 - 10:04 GMT 

LONDON, Aug 14 (AFP) - Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is
confident of eventually overcoming her country's military regime and
believes "the tide of history is with us", she said in an interview
broadcast here Friday.

Speaking to BBC radio last Sunday, before her car was blocked by security
forces as she tried to meet members of her National League for Democracy
(NLD), Aung San Suu Kyi said: "I don't believe in sitting and hoping, we
have to work for it.

"I am confident that we will achieve democracy because the tide of history
is with us."

On Friday Aung San Suu Kyi entered the third day of her stand-off with
security forces on a rural highway -- the fourth such protest in a month.

She is now in almost the same spot about 25 kilometres (15 miles) outside
the capital Yangon where she held a six-day protest last month, but this
time she is in a mini-van rather than a sedan and has brought extra
supplies.

Her previous six-day standoff ended when the junta forcibly drove her home
on July 29.

In her BBC interview, Aung San Suu Kyi said: "The situation of the country
is such that the military regime can really do nothing for the country and
the people know that change is necessary.

"We've always been confident that we will achieve our goal eventually, it's
a matter of time. The sooner the better of course because, the longer it
takes, the more suffering there is".

Meanwhile in Myanmar Friday 18 foreign activists went on trial for
allegedly breaching a national security law which carries a maximum 10-year
jail sentence.

The activists were rounded up Sunday handing out pamphlets urging people to
remember the 10th anniversary of a bloody military crackdown on
pro-democracy demonstrators on August 8, 1988.

The pamphlets also promoted human rights and democracy.

US congressman Chris Smith, a Republican from New Jersey who arrived in the
Thai capital Bangkok Thursday on a mission to release the six US detainees,
said he hoped to travel to Myanmar soon.

He was quoted by the BBC as saying: "I hope that the regime will see that
this is an explosive public relations disaster in the making.

"They would then need to be moving towards dialogue with the pro-democracy
people in Burma -- that would be the best case -- but to invite criticism
and the angst of the international community is foolhardy."

The BBC also interviewed a Briton arrested for distributing pro-democracy
pamphlets and freed from a Myanmar jail last week after three months.

James Rupert Russell Mawdsley described conditions in prison as "very dirty
 .. full of disease".

"But the main problem is the malice from the guards with rank, they'll do
whatever they can to make your life difficult," he said, adding that
"physically I am still a bit sick but I am very happy to be home."

He added he saw his main task while in prison as to support other
pro-democracy activists jailed for up to 25 years.

"They've lost their homes, their families, their limbs or their lives. You
think about these people and your own problems don't seem that big."

Asked if he thought he had been rash, he replied: "People who think it's
foolhardy just don't understand how desperate the situation is, it really
is terrible.


"If I have suffered for 98 days, that's certainly nothing compared to
what's going on in there and it's certainly worth it."

But he said he would not be returning, as he had been told he would be
jailed for 10 years if he was caught campaigning again.