NLD and International Response

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28Sep96 BURMA: BURMA POLICE SEIZE FILM, DETAIN JOURNALISTS. 05:35 GMT  
RANGOON, Sept 28 (Reuter) - Burmese police detained several photo and
television journalists in their hotel on Saturday and demanded they hand
over film and tapes of checkpoints near the house of democracy leader Aung
San Suu Kyi, witnesses said.
"They told us we had to stop taking pictures and said we couldn't go
anywhere until they got their superior to come and check our cameras and
film," said a photographer, who had visited the hotel.
He told Reuters the security men let him go when he said he was not staying
at the hotel.
Up to six photographers and television cameramen from several international
news organisations were among those who had their equipment searched and
travel documents checked by security officers.
The journalists were in Rangoon to cover this weekend's planned eighth
anniversary congress of opposition leader Suu Kyi's National League for
Democracy (NLD) party at her house.
Burma's military government have blocked University Avenue, along which Suu
Kyi's house is located, since early on Friday to stop the planned meeting
and detained over 100 party activists to prevent them from attending it.
A picture of a camera crossed out with a red "X" was posted near one of the
police checkpoints a couple of blocks away from Suu Kyi's house, apparently
warning cameramen against taking pictures.
On Friday a foreign cameraman said authorities confiscated film he had shot
near Suu Kyi's residence.  
(c) Reuters Limited 1996
REUTER NEWS SERVICE




28Sep96 THAILAND: HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS CONDEMN BURMA OVER DETENTIONS. 05:27 GMT  
BANGKOK, Sept 28 (Reuter) - Human Rights Watch/Asia and Amnesty
International roundly condemned Burma's latest detention of more than 100
representatives of Aung San Suu Kyi's democracy party in Rangoon.
In separate statements received by Reuters on Saturday, the human rights
groups and the All Burma Students' Democratic Front (ABSDF) of exiles
demanded the immediate release of all those detained by the military government.
Members of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party were detained
on Friday by the State Law and Order Restoration Committee (SLORC) as they
planned to attend a congress to mark the party's founding eight years ago.
The SLORC replied that those detained were only being held for questioning
and to prevent the party from holding its congress for which official
permission had not been granted.
The United States and Britain also deplored Burma's latest crackdown on the
pro-democracy activists.
"Yet again the military authorities are showing that they will not tolerate
any dissenting voices in Myanmar (Burma)," said Amnesty.
New York-based Human Rights Watch said the seven-member Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which Burma is lobbying to join, should
press for the detainees' release.
"If ASEAN countries do not protest against these new arrests and use their
influence to secure the release of those detained, they will effectively be
letting Burma set the human rights standard for the region," said its
executive director Sidney Jones.
The ABSDF said it was concerned about Suu Kyi's own safety after the latest
crackdown and criticised the SLORC's intolerance and repression of
politicians opposed to it.
Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi had been seen but not heard on Saturday as
troops and police blockaded the road to her house.
Witnesses said they had seen Suu Kyi walk down University Avenue, the street
her house is on, but no one has heard from her since authorities blocked a
three-day congress of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party due to
have begun on Friday.
A senior government official said Suu Kyi was not being detained.  
(c) Reuters Limited 1996
REUTER NEWS SERVICE




28Sep96 BURMA: NO WORD FROM BURMA'S SUU KYI AS BLOCKADE CONTINUES. 05:24 GMT  
By Deborah Charles
RANGOON, Sept 28 (Reuter) - Burma's Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi
had been seen but not heard on Saturday as troops and police blockaded the
road to her house to prevent a meeting of democracy activists.
Witnesses said they had seen Suu Kyi walk down University Avenue, the street
her house is on, but no one has heard from her since authorities blocked a
three-day congress of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party due to
have begun on Friday.
"She walked down the street and talked to police at the blockade for about
10 minutes," one witness said.
Heavily armed security police and military intelligence officers were
deployed on several blocks of University Avenue to stop vehicles and
pedestrians from entering the street.
Police told Reuters the blockade would stay up through Sunday, and that Suu
Kyi's regular weekend speeches on Saturday and Sunday -- her only real forum
to speak to her supporters -- would not take place.
Repeated attempts to contact Suu Kyi by telephone over the past two days
have failed, leading to speculation that her phone line had been cut as it
was during her six years of house arrest which ended in July 1995.
But a senior government official, who said Suu Kyi was not being detained,
told Reuters on Saturday he did not think her line had been cut by authorities.
"She can go out. I'm sure she's meeting with diplomats," the official said.
"If she wants to reach anybody she can. I don't see that there is any reason
why the line would be cut."
Diplomats in Rangoon said they had no word from Suu Kyi, and other senior
NLD officials were also incommunicado. Some members of the NLD executive
committee were expected to be in her compound while others were presumed to
have been detained.
The ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) had ordered the
detention of at least 109 NLD members and supporters by Saturday, and they
were taken to local guest houses for questioning.
The official said they would be released when the situation returned to normal.
The government said in official media on Saturday it had prevented the NLD's
congress from taking place to maintain peace and stability in the country.
The state-run media said the NLD had secretly planned the meeting of 600
activists at Suu Kyi's house to coincide with the beginning of the United
Nations General Assembly and discussions of a sanctions bill against Burma
in the U.S. Congress.
The NLD said on Thursday it had invited 200 people to attend the congress to
celebrate the party's eighth anniversary.
The party, born amid unprecedented protests against military rule in 1988,
won a landslide victory in a 1990 election 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 party congress was to have been the
first time Suu Kyi would meet the elected representatives of the NLD as a group.
In May, the goverment thwarted an attempt to hold a similar congress and
detained more than 260 NLD delegates. Most were later released but some were
charged and given long prison terms.
The SLORC has also accused foreign governments, especially the United
States, of helping the NLD organise the party meeting to undermine the
country's peace and stability.
In Washington U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Glyn Davies dismissed
the charge as "bogus".
"Aung San Suu Kyi is a strong figure in the democracy movement and she makes
the calls about what happens in the NLD. She doesn't need advice from us."  
(c) Reuters Limited 1996
REUTER NEWS SERVICE




28Sep96 USA: U.S. SAYS BURMA CHARGE "BOGUS". 00:06 GMT  
WASHINGTON, Sept 27 (Reuter) - The United States on Friday rejected as
"bogus" Burma's charge that it was helping democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi
plan a party meeting that was aimed at undermining the country's peace and
stability.
It also deplored new arrests of 109 pro-democracy activists and other steps
by Burma's military regime to keep Suu Kyi's National League of Democracy
(NLD) from holding the meeting.
Burmese officials said the United States had urged Suu Kyi to hold an NLD
congress to coincide with discussions of a sanctions bill against Burma in
the U.S. Congress.
"Clearly that's a bogus charge on the part of the Burmese regime," State
Department deputy spokesman Glyn Davies said.
He told reporters U.S. officials have contacts with Suu Kyi and her
supporters, as they do with other segments of Burmese society, including the
government, to keep informed about what is going on in the country.
He noted the NLD was the largest opposition party and won a landslide
victory in the 1990 general election. It was never allowed to take power
because the ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) refused
to recognise the results of the poll.
"Aung San Suu Kyi is a strong figure in the democracy movement and she makes
the calls about what happens in the NLD. She doesn't need advice from us,"
he said.
As for the new crackdown by the regime, Davies said the United States
"deplores the actions taken by the State Law and Order Restoration Council
 ... to prevent the National League for Democracy from holding its ... Congress."
The measures clearly are designed to disrupt the party congress, "a
legitimate meeting of a legally registered party in Burma," he said.
The arrests, and other forms of intimidation by the regime are to prevent
Suu Kyi and her backers from "exercising their basic political rights,
including freedom of speech and peaceful assembly," he said.
The United States calls on the SLORC "to immediately, and unconditionally,
release all of the NLD members and activists who have been detained for
exercising their legitimate political rights," Davies added.
Suu Kyi, who was released from six years of house arrest in July 1995,
called a party congress for Friday through Sunday to celebrate the NLD's
eighth anniversary.
The group was formed in August 1988 after months of unprecedented protests
against military rule that left thousands dead or imprisoned.
The U.S. Congress, due to adjourn on Friday, has yet to vote on the 1997
Foreign Operations Appropriations bill, which includes an amendment urging
Burma to improve its human rights record. It would let the president
prohibit U.S. investment in Burma if Suu Kyi is rearrested or exiled, or if
there is large-scale repression of the opposition.
U.S. officials expect the bill to be approved by both the House and the
Senate and to be signed into law by Clinton.  
(c) Reuters Limited 1996
REUTER NEWS SERVICE




27Sep96 UK: BRITAIN DEPLORES CRACKDOWN ON BURMESE ACTIVISTS. 17:40 GMT  
LONDON, Sept 27 (Reuter) - Britain on Friday deplored the detention of more
than 100 pro-democracy activists in Burma and said it was consulting with
its European Union partners about possible measures against the Rangoon
government.
Burmese police detained 109 activists and blocked all roads leading to
democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's house on Friday to stop a congress of
her party from taking place.
The Foreign Office said it was seriously concerned about the further
deterioration in the situation in Rangoon.
"We deplore the latest detention of members of the National League for
Democracy," the ministry said in a statement. "It is a clear obstruction of
a legal political party."
It said that Britain had been talking to its European partners about
possible measures against the ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council
(SLORC) since the EU called on SLORC in July to release all political prisoners.
"The latest events add urgency to these discussions," the Foreign Office said.  
(c) Reuters Limited 1996
REUTER NEWS SERVICE




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