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Suu Kyi's party fears more attacks



Asahi Evening News
Thursday, November 14,1996.

Suu Kyi's party fears more attacks
----------------------------------
(The Associated Press)
Yangon, Myanmar- Opposition party members have expressed fears of more violence 
by Myanmar's( Burma's) government, possibly including an attack on party leader 
Aung San Suu Kyi's lakeside compound.
	"We have seen hundreds of them receiving some sort of training on 
Chicken Island, just across the lake, and we have had reports they plan to march 
on the house,"a senior party member told a foreign journalist who visited Suu 
Kyi's home. 
	Last Saturday, a mob of 200 men wielding crowbars, chains, sticks and 
knives surrounded Suu Kyi's motorcade, smashing windows and slightly injuring 
Tin Oo, her party's vice chairman, as heavily armed government riot police 
looked on and did nothing.
	Thousands of such men were trucked in past government roadblocks that 
prevented Suu Kyi's supporters and the public from getting anywhere near her 
home. Some told diplomats they were paid 500 kyats ( 478yen ) by the government 
to be there.
	They were led by men carrying walkie-talkies and cellular phones. In 
Myanmar, where un authorized use of telephones and fax machines has resulted in 
prison terms, only government security personnel are nomally permitted to use 
such items.
	Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, said the military government cannot 
deny it was involved in the attack. The government has not officially commented 
on the affair, although one high-ranking officer who declined to be identified 
told a foreign reporter it was the work of saboteurs.
	It was the worst political violence in the capital sine the military 
shot thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators in 1988. The island where Suu 
Kyi's party members say they have seen hundreds of men training is clearly 
visible from her lake-side compound.
	Despite strong international condemnation of the attack, and signs that 
not all members of the military government were involved or supported the 
violence, senior members of Suu Kyi's party said they feared the mobs would 
appear again.

					***
Information Committee
Burma Youth Volunteer Association-Japan