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Reuter: SATURDAY FORUM: IF SLORC HA



Subject: Reuter: SATURDAY FORUM: IF SLORC HAS DONE SOMTHG GOOD

 SATURDAY'S NLD FORUM: IF SLORC HAS DONE SOMETHING GOOD
     (Recasts with Suu Kyi speech, updates release figures)

     By Deborah Charles
     RANGOON, June 1 (Reuter) - Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi
said on Saturday the military had released nearly half the activists it
arrested in a recent sweeping crackdown on democracy politicians 10 days
ago, but some were in jail.
     In a speech to about 4,000 people outside the gates of her University
Avenue home, Suu Kyi said more than 100 members of her National League for
Democracy (NLD) party had been released from detention by the military
government.
     "More than 250 of them were arrested and over 100 have now been
released. There are still those who are under detention," Suu Kyi told the
crowd as she stood on a table to look over the gates and out onto the
packed street.
     Suu Kyi has said at least nine of the activists have been charged
under sweeping emergency laws.
     "Some of those who were arrested are now in Insein jail, and it seems
they are going to be tried and sentenced. This is a sign there is no
justice and no rule of law in this country."
     The government made a brief announcement in official media on
Saturday, saying it allowed the NLD delegates to return home after
questioning.
     "Today, authorities have sent the delegates called in for questioning
home, right to their doors, from the guest houses where they were being
accommodated," said a news item dated May 31. It did not say how many had
been detained nor how many had been released.
     Suu Kyi also appealed to the international community, which over the
past two weeks has widely condemned the sweeping arrests by the military
government, to stand by Burma's fledgling democracy movement.
     "We are only asking that justice be done. We look to the international
community to stand by us," she said as rain began to pour down at the end
of her hour-long speech.
     Burma's State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) began
arresting NLD members on May 21 ahead of a controversial conference of
elected party members from May 26-29..
     By the time the conference was held, at least 261 NLD members were
under detention, and most of them were representatives elected in a 1990
poll.
     The SLORC said it had only picked the NLD members up for questioning
and was holding them temporarily in order to avoid "anarchy" that could
result from the meeting.
     Despite the arrests and verbal intimidation by the SLORC, the NLD held
its congress as scheduled. But the nature of the meeting changed since most
of the 300 elected NLD representative due to attend had been arrested.
     Suu Kyi said the SLORC had failed in its attempt to scuttle the
meeting and dampen the enthusiasm of the democracy movement.
     Instead, she said, the crackdown revitalised the party.
     In her wide-ranging speech to supporters, Suu Kyi dismissed recent
attacks on her party in official media and mass rallies.
     She asked the crowd to help her find something good to say about the
SLORC, which has has complained she is spreading only bad news about the
country to foreign media.
     "Will any of you please try to find out the good things done by the
SLORC and write it to me next week? I will read that letter to you all,"
she said to howls of laughter.
     Suu Kyi, whose NLD party was never able to take power despite winning
a landslide victory in a 1990 election, has made regular weekend speeches
to supporters outside her front gates since being released from six year of
house arrest in July..
  REUTER
KT
ISBDA