SCMP-Burma -Symbolic rice for poor

[tinkyi@xxxxxxx]

Subject: SCMP-Burma -Symbolic rice for poor on anniversary

Tuesday  January 5  1999

Burma -Symbolic rice for poor on anniversary

ASSOCIATED PRESS in Rangoon
In a symbolic criticism of how decades of military rule have beggared Burma,
the opposition party led by Aung San Suu Kyi gave rice to the poor yesterday
as the country celebrated the 51st anniversary of independence from Britain.

The ruling State Peace and Development Council meanwhile marked Independence
Day by denouncing Ms Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League of Democracy
as traitors acting on behalf of foreign powers.

The rival celebrations illustrated the deep and widening gulf separating the
Government and the struggling opposition, which was further weakened last
week by the resignation of 256 party members.

The National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, a
government-in-exile composed of MPs who have fled abroad, said the
Government was "bankrupt [both] politically and economically".

Junta chairman General Than Shwe, in a statement read by Rangoon's Garrison
commander at an official flag-raising ceremony, declared Burmese were united
"against the destructive threats of [traitors] and neo-colonialists abroad".

Ms Aung San Suu Kyi was planning only a simple ceremony largely due to the
pressure her party is under.

Outside, supporters distributed about 5kg of rice to about 60 poor women and
children, something the party has regularly done of late.

The donations amount to reminders that the country was the rice bowl of
Southeast Asia a half-century ago but is now one of the region's poorest
nations.