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Reuters-INTERVIEW-Rebels say Myanma



INTERVIEW-Rebels say Myanmar violence ``inevitable'' 
06:01 a.m. Sep 03, 1998 Eastern 

By Somchit Rungchamratrasami 

MAE SOT, Thailand, Sept 3 (Reuters) - A leader of a group of guerrillas
fighting the Myanmar government said on Thursday violence was inevitable if
the ruling military did not agree to talk to opposition leader Aung San Suu
Kyi. 

Mahn Sha, secretary-general of the Karen National Union (KNU) rebel
movement, said the two sides in Myanmar appeared to be on a collision
course. 

The government was determined not to accede to the demands of the 1991
Nobel Peace Prize winner, but her pro-democracy movement would not give up.


``As long as the SPDC (State Peace and Development Council) refuses to hold
direct talks with Aung San Suu Kyi, the tension will escalate and violence
is inevitable,'' Manh Sha told Reuters in an interview in the jungle along
the Thai-Myanmar border. 

``People who live in the rural areas and border towns seem to get a sense
of imminent violence,'' he said. 

Manh Sha predicted the student protests in Yangon would escalate along with
support for Suu Kyi's opposition National League for Democracy (NLD). 

But he said the opposition movement was better organised this time than 10
years ago when Myanmar saw its last significant anti-government uprising. 

Opposition supporters say several thousand people were killed by the army
in a nationwide uprising that began on August 8, 1988 -- the so-called
``Four Eights'' day. 

Yangon's military government says only few dozen people died in the
violence. 

``The current movement of the students is totally different from the Four
Eights incident because then they had no prominent leader,'' Mahn Sha said.


``But now the students have Aung San Suu Kyi as a symbol of democracy and
their de facto leader who would fight along side with them,'' he said. 

Formed in 1948, the KNU has been fighting for an autonomous Karen state in
eastern Myanmar since 1949. 

It suffered a major setback in 1994, when a Buddhist faction staged a rank
and file mutiny against the Christian-dominated leadership and defected to
Myanmar troops. 

But it has survived and is an enthusiastic supporter of the Myanmar
pro-democracy movement and Suu Kyi. 

Suu Kyi has raised the pressure on the military government in recent weeks,
holding protests against restrictions on her movements and promising to
convene a ``People's Parliament'' because the government refuses to do so. 

In a statement on Wednesday the government said an NLD parliament would
amount to setting up a parallel government, ``which no government in the
world would accept.'' 

It said the KNU would act as the armed wing of the NLD, endangering
national reconciliation efforts and under such a scenario the government
would have no option but to take legal action against the opposition to
safeguard national security. 

The NLD won the country's last polls in May 1990 by a landslide, but the
military ignored the results, saying Myanmar was not ready for democracy. 

Manh Sha said recent tension in Yangon between the government and
opposition had pushed up prices throughout Myanmar. 

``People have begun to stock up on food and necessary items and this is
causing the cost of living to sky rocket,'' he said.