Reuters-Myanmar trying to force MPs

[hlaing@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Myanmar trying to force MPs to resign--opposition 
09:20 a.m. Oct 21, 1998 Eastern 

YANGON, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Myanmar's opposition National League for
Democracy accused the military government on Wednesday of holding elected
members of parliament in detention to force them to resign. 

``Those under detention are being pressured by means of unlawful methods
and being forced to resign from being representatives elect and from the
NLD without their consent,'' the party said in a statement. 

``The NLD will not accept their resignations at all as they are not in
accord with the law,'' it said. 

The party, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, says 988 of
its members, including 203 who were elected in Myanmar's last general
election eight years ago, have been detained since May. 

The NLD won the 1990 election by a landslide but the military ignored the
result. 

Most of the detentions have occurred since the party vowed in August that
it would call a ``People's Parliament.'' 

The NLD leadership has since formed a committee to act on behalf of such a
parliament, its strongest act of defiance against the ruling military
council. 

The government has admitted it is holding some NLD members, but has given
no figures. It has said that it has freed 24 NLD members from among those
detained. 

In Bangkok, the All Burma Students' Democratic Front, an organisation of
political exiles, said the government had charged the leader of the Mon
National Democratic Front under the Emergency Provisions Act for backing
the NLD committee. 

It said Naign Ngwe Thein, 75, had been detained since May and had been
charged on October 9 along with two other officials of his party, Min Soe
Lin and Min Kyi Win, both of whom won seats in the election. 

The student front said in a statement that the two were likely to receive
long prison terms. 

A government spokesman in Yangon did not reply to a faxed query from
Reuters in Bangkok about the reported charges.