AP: Stand By the NLD for Justice in

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Subject: AP: Stand By the NLD for Justice in Burma

       STAND BY THE NLD FOR JUSTICE IN BURMA

  By AYE AYE WIN
 Associated Press Writer
   RANGOON, Burma (AP) -- The leader of Burma's pro-democracy party called
Saturday for the release of more than 20 of her supporters who could face
long terms at a Rangoon prison known for torture.
   "We want the rest of our people released, we want all of our people
released," Aung San Suu Kyi told a cheering crowd of 6,000 people at the
gate of her home.
   In her weekly speech, Suu Kyi also said some detainees had been forced
to sign documents that they would no longer work for her party.
   The government has released only 100 of 262 people detained two weeks
ago in a failed bid to stop Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy from
holding a party congress.
   The winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize said her party called on "the
international community to stand by us in asking for justice and democracy
in Burma."
   The U.S. State Department said Friday that it may ask Congress to impose
sanctions against the military regime, which seized power in 1988 after
violently suppressing pro-democracy demonstrations.
   Held despite the mass arrests, last Sunday's conference posed the
biggest challenge to the regime since Suu Kyi was freed last July from six
years of house arrest.
   The government has denounced Suu Kyi in the state-owned press and is
staging massive rallies around the country opposing the pro-democracy
movement.
   Burmese state radio announced Friday that those detained as "guests of
the government" would be freed, but it was unclear when, and if the
government would release all of them.
   Suu Kyi said failure to release the jailed activists "will be a sign
that there is no justice and no rule of law in this country."

   
KT
ISBDA