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Rangoon based diplomat skeptical of



Subject: Rangoon based diplomat skeptical of junta ( old news)

RTw  01/21 003++0 (Reuter) - Rangoon-based diplomats and rebel Burmese said
on Thursday they were sceptical the Burma junta had any plans to release soon
Nobel Peace Prize-winner Aung San Suu Kyi, under house arrest since 1989.
     "Security guards are still strictly guarding her house, a patrol boat 
still cruises the lake behind her house and there is no indication that they 
willallow anyone access to her in the near future," a diplomat said in a 
telephoneinterview.
    Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt, powerful secretary of the military ruling
body, the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), told Japanese
journalists last week Burma's five-year limit on house arrest would be reached
in July.
    Diplomats said the SLORC could easily extend the limit.
     "The country is run by the junta and they are empowered to issue a decree
to replace that law if they like," one said.
     One diplomat said he believed the Japanese jounalists pressed for an 
answer on Aung San Suu Kyi during their session in Rangoon, which is seekimg 
Japanese business investment in the country.
    SLORC placed the 48-year-old 1993 prize-winner and daughter of independence
hero Aung San under house arrest in July 1989, without filing charges against
her.
     A member of the National League for Democracy (NLD), Aung San Suu Kyi's
party, which won a landslide victory in 1990 elections despite her house 
arrest,said it was dangerous to believe promises by the junta.
     "Promising to release Aung San Suu Kyi by the generals is nothing new 
sincethey always say that she is free to leave the country anytime she
likes if she renounced politics," he said. "But I don't think she will accept
that.
     "Khin Nyunt is just playing with words. He will ignore what he said,
likethe junta choose to ignore the result of the 1990 election."
     SLORC, which took power after a national uprising for democracy was
violently suppressed in 1988, refused to hand over power to elected politicians
after the NLD won the 1990 parliamentary elections.