"Suu Kyi crackdown demanded" from

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Subject: "Suu Kyi crackdown demanded"  from Asahi Evening News

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Asahi Evening News
May 21, 1996

Suu Kyi Crackdown Demanded

The Associated Press

RANGOON - Urging a crackdown on Burma's pro - democracy
movement ahead of a planned major gathering, the state - run
press Monday likened opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to a
snake whose appearances should be curbed. 

The attack reflected rising tensions as Suu Kyi's National League
for Democracy plans to hold a three - day meeting at her home in
Rangoon starting Sunday, bringing together party members who
won parliamentary seats in the 1990 general election. 

The party captured 392 of the 485 seats contested, but the
governing military junta never allowed Parliament to convene and
still rules by decree. 

The meeting, which coincides with the sixth anniversary of the
elections, amounts to a symbolic challenge to the military regime's
legitimacy. State - controlled newspapers Monday demonstrated
official hostility toward the gathering. 

"When Will the Act of the Snakes End?" said a story published in
all Burma's staterun newspapers. It focused on public gatherings
of about 2,000 people held in front of Suu Kyi's house every
weekend since her release from six years of house arrest last July. 

The article compared the appearances to a roadside "snake -
charming" show, and referred to Suu Kyi as a female cobra and
her two colleagues, senior party officials Tin Oo and Kyi Maung, as
a banded krait and a viper. 

Suggesting the appearances could foment unrest, the articles
urged the junta to "deter the outbreak of demonstrations and
disturbances like in 1988." 

The junta came to power that year after violently suppressing pro -
democracy demonstrations, killing thousands. 

The newspapers praised the regime for opening Burma to foreign
investment and reaching cease - fires with ethnic rebels. They
suggested handling Suu Kyi with similar "diligence and
mindfulness." 
"It is time the roadside snake-charming show, which has been
going on for some time, should be stopped and the three
poisonous snakes put back in their baskets," the newspapers said. 

The government severely restricts the movements of Suu Kyi --
who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her non - violent
promotion of democracy -- and other leaders of her party in an
effort to keep them from rallying public support. 

The state press strictly reflects the military line, and preaches that
the alternative to military rule is anarchy. It often attacks Suu Kyi
and her colleagues as irresponsible or malevolent. 

Another article in Monday's newspapers urged that any person
who tried to endanger the peace and stability of the country or
create disturbances "be dealt with seriously according to law." 

Suu Kyi's party seeks to have the military hand over power to the
winners of the 1990 election. The junta says a new constitution
must be promulgated before democratic rule can be installed. 


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