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FOCUS-Myanmar opposition says 220 m



  FOCUS-Myanmar opposition says 220 members held
                           09:10 a.m. Sep 08, 1998 Eastern

                           By Aung Hla Tun

YANGON, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Myanmar's state press on Tuesday made its
strongest call yet for the deportation of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi
while her party said 220 of its members had been detained by the military
government since the weekend.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy said those held since Sunday
included 63 elected members of parliament.

The detentions, which the government has confirmed without specifying
numbers, follow an NLD vow to convene a ``People's Parliament'' this month
in recognition of its landslide win in the country's last general election
eight years ago.

Diplomats said the detentions meant that even if the party went ahead with
its vow, it would be able to assemble only a small number of elected members
of parliament.

The NLD said a further 66 of its MPs had been placed under restrictions
since May 27, when it first set a target date for the convening of
parliament.

 On Monday a spokesman for the government said it would take ``appropriate
action'' against Suu Kyi and other NLD leaders if they stuck to their vow.

A commentary carried in the Myanmar-language Myanmar Alin (Light of Myanmar)
and Kyemon (Mirror) newspapers accused the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner of
trying to destabilise the country and said her marriage to English academic
Michael Aris made her a
foreigner.

``Therefore I would like to request the government most humbly on behalf of
the entire people to issue a deportation order for Daw Suu Kyi...,'' the
article ascribed to ``an  advocate'' said.

U.S. charge d'affaires Kent Wiedemann demanded the immediate release of the
detained NLD members in a meeting with senior members of the government on
Monday, a spokesman for the U.S. embassy said.

``He protested their having been detained and when told by the authorities
that they did not know how long they would be detained, the United States
asked for their immediate release,'' the spokesperson said.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said he was ``disturbed'' by
the detentions.

The non-governmental group Human Rights Watch said in a statement it was
gravely concerned about the reported detentions, saying they marked a
``major new clampdown.''

It said it had received reports that elected members of parties representing
smaller ethnic groups had also been detained.

It called on Japan, the European Union and members of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations to condemn the detentions and urge Myanmar to take
steps to allow its citizens to participate freely in politics. A meeting of
foreign ministers is due to be held in New York on September 23 and 24.

``We urge the...government to comply fully with the recommendations of the
United Nations by releasing immediately and unconditionally all those
detained for political reasons and
stop the harassment of the NLD,'' said Mike Jendrzejczyk, the Washington
director of the  Asia division of Human Rights Watch.

A diplomat in Yangon said some of those detained were taken away in the
middle of the night. ``We understand some were rousted out of bed at 3 a.m.
in the morning,'' he said.

A government statement seen on Tuesday said it had invited NLD members to
government guest houses to ``present the government's view'' and to ``invite
them on their suggestion (of) convening a parliament in the absence of a
constitution.''

The generals argue that a constitution is needed before a new parliament can
be formed.

They set up a national convention in 1993 to draw up a constitution to
replace the one they abolished when they seized power in 1988 by crushing a
pro-democracy uprising. Its work has been suspended since 1996.

The government statement said a working committee of the convention was ``in
the process of working towards the laying of the furtherance of the
principals of the National Constitution.''

The newspaper commentary accused Suu Kyi of creating unrest since 1988, the
year she emerged as the main opposition leader.

It accused her of ``brazenly violating the independent sovereign power of
Myanmar'' by discussing its internal affairs with the U.S. and British
embassies.

It also said she had failed to register the births of her sons with the
Myanmar Embassy or to pay Myanmar taxes on income earned abroad and blamed
rises in prices of consume goods on her confrontational policies.

``People are becoming frightened and panic that the situation will become
like in 1988 as the foreign broadcasting stations are broadcasting their
instigations,'' it said.

Amid the government-opposition standoff in recent weeks, university
students, who led the 1988 uprising, have staged their biggest protests in
years at their campus grounds.