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SCMP-NLD renegades deny splitting o



Subject: SCMP-NLD renegades deny splitting opposition 

SCMP-Tuesday  May 11  1999
Burma

NLD renegades deny splitting opposition

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Updated at 6.25pm:
Eight renegade members of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party denied
on Tuesday they are working for military intelligence in an attempt to split
the group.

Ms Aung San Suu Kyi and other leaders of the National League for Democracy
have branded them traitors for petitioning party leaders to reconsider
policies they say said have led to a stand-off with the military government.

''We submitted the proposal to perpetuate the existence of the party, and
not to destroy its unity,'' said Tin Tun Maung, one of three party members
who drafted the petition. ''We did it in the best interest of the party,
with our own free will and under the influence of nobody.''

The three cited in particular Ms Aung San Suu Kyi's attempt to convene the
parliament elected in 1990 in a poll the NLD won by a landslide. The three
petition drafters were elected, but the military government refused to
honour the results.

Mr Tin Tun Maung said thousands of 'voluntary' resignations by NLD party
members - said by the NLD to have been coerced - ''don't bode well for the
future of the party''.

the results.

Mr Tin Tun Maung said thousands of 'voluntary' resignations by NLD party
members - said by the NLD to have been coerced - ''don't bode well for the
future of the party''.

''I think she [Ms Aung San Suu Kyi] wanted compromise, but those around her
were against it,'' he added.

The renegade petition was signed by 25 party members, most of whom diplomats
in Rangoon said were under detention in government guest houses at the time.
The renegades said their main goals is to break the deadlock between the
party and the military.

Hla Soe, another NLD lawmaker, said dialogue between the party and the
military could have taken place long ago if Ms Aung San Suu Kyi and Vice
Chairman Tin Oo had let other NLD leaders carry it out while obeying their
instructions from the sidelines.

''Tin Oo and Aung San Suu Kyi were expelled from the party when they were
under detention and the government does not recognise them as legal party
leaders,'' he said.