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Myanmar frees Aung San Suu Kyi aide



Myanmar frees Aung San Suu Kyi aide
Thu 11 Feb 99 - 13:34 GMT

YANGON, Feb 11 (AFP) - Myanmar's military rulers freed a former associate of
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi Thursday, a quarter of the way through a
20-year jail sentence, an official statement said.
Dr Ma Thida, a medical doctor and writer believed to be in her 30s, was
pardoned and set free on humanitarian grounds, the statement received in
Bangkok said.

Thida was jailed for 20 years in October 1993 after being found guilty of
"illegal distribution of materials published by armed terrorist groups and
unlawful organisations," the statement said.

No details were available on her health or why the government had decided to
release her.

There was no immediate comment from the opposition but analysts said Thida
may have been set free on health grounds or as part of the periodic but
infrequent release of activists.

There was no suggestion the move signalled any softening of the junta line
towards the opposition, which has seen its grass-roots organisation
systematically crushed by the military in recent months.

There was no indication either that the release was linked to an appeal by
European diplomats here this week for a human rights "gesture" from Yangon
which could ease a row raging over Myanmar between the EU and ASEAN.

The squabble is threatening ministerial meetings between the two groupings
in Berlin.

The EU is looking for real improvements in human rights before it will allow
Myanmar to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-EU
meeting next month, a European diplomat told AFP.

An opposition statement released here Thursday accused the junta of cranking
up the pressure on elected politicians and their families in the latest
stage of its bid to crush Aung San Suu Kyi's democracy movement.

The parliamentary representative committee, set up last year to act for a
parliament elected in 1990 which has never been allowed to meet, said the
junta was trying to force MPs out of politics.

Parliamentarians had been "threatened with dire consequences should they
refuse" to quit, the committee, led by Aung San Suu Kyi's National League
for Democracy (NLD), said in a statement received here Thursday.


"Not only have they (the military rulers) threatened to dismiss public
servants found to be family members and relatives of party members but they
even said they would prevent their offspring from attending school should
they refuse to resign," the committee said.

Two MPs, U Bo Zan and U Ngwe Tun from Kyaukpadaung township in northern
Mandalay division had not broken any laws but "were nevertheless being
pressured to resign and threatened with dire consequences should they
refuse," the statement said.

The statement was issued ahead of Friday's 52nd anniversary of Union Day
which led to Myanmar's independence from Britain.

Security around Yangon was even tighter than normal in a bid to deter any
activists keen to use the anniversary to cause disruption, witnesses said.

The latest opposition statement comes three weeks after the NLD accused the
government of forcing tens of thousands of voters to withdraw support from
one of its MPs, Than Tun, at three mass rallies.

The renewed pressure on MPs follows a sustained drive against the NLD
launched last year.

Hundreds of members were detained in government "guest houses" and then
resigned from the party on their release, the result, the NLD says, of
intimidation by military intelligence.

Most of the detentions followed the NLD's bid last August to convene the
parliament which emerged from the party's landslide victory in 1990.

In response to the parliament call the junta began staging mass "rallies"
around the country, where people were gathered to listen to speakers
denounce Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi as a traitor to her race and
country.

Western diplomats say the government has succeeded in cutting off the
branches of the NLD machine from the roots, namely the core of leaders
around Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon.

"Really the operation is a public relations success for the government
because although people have left the party, they still have the NLD in
their hearts," said the Yangon-based diplomat.

"If the opportunity arose for them to show they still support Aung San Suu
Kyi they would come out straight away," said the diplomat.


)AFP 1999