Rumours and intrigue as Myanmar sta

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Rumours and intrigue as Myanmar stand-off hits new peak

       Thu 20 Aug 98 - 06:17 GMT 

       YANGON, Aug 20 (AFP) - Political tensions rose in Myanmar Thursday a
day before an opposition deadline for
       the junta to convene the elected parliament as the generals came in for
more international criticism.

       The National League for Democracy (NLD) led by Nobel peace laureate
Aung San Suu Kyi has demanded that the
       parliament elected in 1990 be convened by Friday. Otherwise it has
warned of unspecified conseqences.

       NLD chairman Aung Shwe met junta chiefs earlier this week as Aung San
Suu Kyi remained locked in a stand-off on
       a rural highway with authorities who have refused to let her visit
provincial supporters.

       "We have always said the deadline was unrelaistic and the government
would not bend," said a western diplomat.

       "That hasn't really changed. But there are some indications the
meeeting might have broken new ground."

       The NLD-led opposition won the 1990 polls by a landslide but the junta
has refused to give up power.

       Yangon markets are abuzz with rumurs that unrest will erupt if the
junta fails to convene parliament. There have also
       been widespread rumours of the impending release of key political
prisoners following the meeting.

       But officials from both the government and the NLD say the role of Aung
San Suu Kyi remains a sticking point.

       "She is not officially recognised as a political figure," said an Asian
diplomat. "So even if they bring the NLD into a
       new government, they can't accept her without losing face."

       Aung San Suu Kyi was Thursday spending her ninth day in a minibus
parked on a small bridge after being blocked
       from travelling further out of town, diplomats said.

       "She is not moving but we think she will be back before the deadline,"
said one of the foreign envoys.

       The junta also came under pressure overseas. The International Labour
Organization said forced labour of women,
       children and old people was pervasive and those who resisted were often
tortured, raped and murdered.

       An ILO-appointed commission of inquiry, in a report issued in Geneva
Wednesday, charged that the government,
       and particularly the military, "treat the civilian population as an
unlimited pool of unpaid forced labourers and
       servants at their disposal."

       These actions are part of a political system "built on the use of force
and intimidation to deny the people of
       Myanmar democracy and the rule of law," it said.

       The NLD had declined previous invitations for talks with the junta,
most recently on August 7, because the
       invitations excluded Aung San Suu Kyi and other key party members,
including co-vice chairman Tin Oo, from the
       dialogue.

       NLD and junta officials met in December but the last high-level talks
were in July 1997.

       Diplomats said Tuesday's meeting did not mean Aung San Suu Kyi had been
sidelined. Some said the talks could
       have been arranged to take place while she remained in the stand-off
outside Yangon, her fourth thwarted bid in
       little over a month to meet provincial supporters.

       She, a party official and two drivers have remained on the bridge 25
kilometres (15 miles) northwest of Yangon
       since being blocked on Wednesday last week.

       The NLD Wednesday urged the public to support the convening of
parliament, saying democracy was in the interests
       of the country's 45 million people.

       "A democratic parliament is aware of all citizens," it said in an open
letter. "The NLD and other elected members of
       parliament have a duty to fulfill the people's desire. The officially
elected MPs need public support to carry out
       their duties."

       In Bangkok some 30 exiled Myanmar students maintaned their vigil
outisde the Myanmar embassy to support the call
       for parliament to be convened.

                                                                              
          ©AFP 1998

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