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SLORC detaine NLD's politicians



27Sep96 BURMA: BURMA HOLDS DEMOCRACY POLITICIANS, HALTS CONGRESS. 08:31 GMT  

By Deborah Charles
RANGOON, Sept 27 (Reuter) - Burmese police detained pro-democracy
politicians and blocked all roads leading to democracy leader Aung San Suu
Kyi's house on Friday to stop a congress of her party taking place, a
government official said.
The Nobel Peace laureate had not been rearrested.
The official told Reuters the ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council
(SLORC) had decided to prevent Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD)
from holding a meeting because it did not have government permission for the
gathering.
"The reason for preventing the meeting from taking place is because they
invited more than 200 representatives, and a congress of this size needs
prior consent of the authorities and they failed to do this," the official
said in an interview.
He claimed the NLD was joining forces with foreign governments like the
United States to hold the congress in an effort to undermine Burma's peace
and stability.
The NLD said on Thursday it was holding the meeting to celebrate its eighth
anniversary.
The party, born amid unprecedented protests against military rule in 1988,
won a landslide victory in 1990 general elections which was never recognised
by SLORC.
Suu Kyi, daughter of Burma's revered independence leader, Aung San, was
under house arrest at the time.
The military government had detained many NLD delegates on Friday afternoon,
the official said. He did not know how many had been brought in for
questioning so far because some were still travelling to Rangoon to attend
the party congress.
But he said all those who planned to attend the meeting would be picked up
and brought to local "guest houses" for questioning.
"It is hard to say how long they will be questioned. It will probably be
like last time and they will be released when everything is quieted down,"
he said.
In May, the goverment detained more than 260 party delegates due to attend a
similar NLD congress. The SLORC released most of them after about 10 days,
but several dozen were charged and given long prison terms.
The government also blocked University Avenue, the road Suu Kyi's house is
on, to prevent anyone from going to her house.
"For three days, September 27, 28 and 29, nobody is allowed to go to...Suu
Kyi's residence," security police Captain Aung Aung, who was manning a
checkpoint on University Avenue, told Reuters.
"She can go and come as she pleases, we don't restrict her. We only need to
stop people from going to her house," he said.
Suu Kyi, who was released from six years of house arrest in July 1995, could
not be reached for comment. Repeated attempts to telephone her house were
unsuccessful, but the senior official said she had not be re-arrested.
Police set up roadblocks and checkpoints and stopped vehicles from
travelling on several blocks of University Avenue.
Heavily armed security police and military intelligence officers stopped a
Reuters correspondent on the street about 400 metres (yards) from Suu Kyi's
lakeside home, saying no one was allowed to get near her house.
Several hundred officers had manned the streets since early on Friday
morning, witnesses said.
Although the blockage of University Avenue, one of Rangoon's main streets,
caused traffic snarls for several miles (km), the rest of the city was calm
and there was no sign of military presence.
The party congress, which was due to have begun on Friday, was to have been
the first time Suu Kyi would meet the elected representatives of the NLD as
a group.  
(c) Reuters Limited 1996
REUTER NEWS SERVICE




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