[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index ][Thread Index ]

SPDC trying to force MPs to resign



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.