Burma junta closes in to halt defia

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Subject: Burma junta closes in to halt defiant Suu Kyi speeches.


	
	Burma junta closes in to halt defiant Suu Kyi speeches
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	Burmese police blocked access to democracy leader Ms Aung San Suu 
Kyi's street yesterday, a day after the Nobel peace prize winner defied 
the ruling military junta and ventured outside her residence to address 
some 250 supporters in two separate groups on the streets of Rangoon.

	Traffic police and military intelligence officers were stationed 
about 100m each side of Ms Suu Kyi's University Avenue home early 
yesterday, barring cars from driving near her house. Pedestrians were 
also asked to stay away.

	"You cannot go through," said one man, apparently a military 
intelligence officer. "You can go other places, but for government 
security you cannot go past."

	On Saturday, Ms Suu Kyi, prevented for the sixth sucessive 
weekend from holding public meetings outside her home, simply went after 
her supporters as military authorities drove them away.

	Some 200 people who had gathered at an intersection not far from 
her residence on University Avenue had been moved on by 50 armed riot police.

	Chanting "Long live Aung San Suu kyi" and "We want democracy," 
the supporters walked slowly with police in tow before assembling 
opposite the nearby Ministry of Industry.

	Late on Saturday afternoon, half an hour after the usual starting 
time for the public gatherings, the Nobel laureate arrived at the scene 
in a white limousine. Ms Suu Kyi spoke for about three minutes, urging 
the crowd to "be brave" and "be patient" as riot police looked on from 
across the street.

	She was accompanied by senior aides from her opposition National 
League for Democracy, including vice chairman Mr Kyi Maung, 78, who had 
been detained by junta authorities last week.

	"The people are struggling very hard. If we are patient we will 
reach our goal," she said.

	After listening attentively to the speech, the crowd, which 
included Buddhist monks, applauded Ms Suu Kyi. The pro-democracy leader 
then departed swiftly in the limousine and her supporters dispersed 
peacefully.

	A few minutes earlier, she had spoken to another crowd of 50 
people from the window of her car.

	Ms Suu Kyi had addressed the public outside her residence every 
weekend since her release in July 1995 from six years of house arrest, 
until University Avenue was blockaded at the end of September.

	More than 500 NLD members were arrested then as the junta 
prevented the party from holding a congress for the second time this 
year. About 260 were detained before a scheduled conference in May.

	Ms Suu Kyi told a news conference at her home on Friday that her 
weekend address would not be made inside her compound, insisting that 
they were "public rallies, not party conferences".

	When the armed blockade was lifted early last week, traffic and 
Burmese pedestrains were free to travel down University Avenue - so long 
as they did not stop outside Ms Suu Kyi's compound.

[Reuters, AFP, By a correspondent in Rangoon, 4 November 1996]

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