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Suu Kyi appeals for international s
Subject: Suu Kyi appeals for international support (The Hindu, 5/12/96.)
Suu Kyi appeals for international support
The Hindu, 5/12/96.
CAPE TOWN, Dec. 4.
The Myanmar Opposition leader, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi,
saying she had not been allowed to leave her home since
Monday's student protests in Yangon, appealed on Tuesday for
moral and practical support for her party.
Speaking by telephone to the former Commonwealth Secretary
General, Mr. Sonny Ramphal, in Cape Town, Ms. Suu Kyi said:
"I would like the world to know that the repression in Myanmar
is getting worse."
She said she had been prevented by police from leaving her
home since the student protests, resulting in the arrest of 300
demonstrators.
The students were protesting against what they called unfair
police handling of a brawl between some of their colleagues and
restaurant owners in October.
Ms. Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace laureate and leader of the National
League for Democracy (NLD). is a member of the board of Mr.
Ramphal's Stockholm-based International Institute for
Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), which met in
Cape Town.
"We as a party are subjected to so much persecution that it is
almost unbelievable. We are supposed to be a legitimate party,
duly registered, and yet we are not even allowed to do regular
party work," she said in a call taped and played to reporters.
"My house is barricaded off every weekend and today it is
barricaded off and probably they will close the street for a few
days to come. Members of our party are subjected to very, very
severe persecution all the time. People are evicted from their
homes, people have been threatened with loss of jobs and our
elected Members of Parliament are forced to resign," she said.
"We would welcome the moral and practical support of right-
thinking people..... she said.
Mr. Ramphal promised to broadcast Ms. Suu Kyi's appeal
adding "where better to send that message to the world than
from South Africa".
An aide said today in Yangon that the military authorities had
restricted the movements of Ms. Suu Kyi who had been told she
cannot leaver her house.
"It is virtual house arrest. We were informed yesterday that she
cannot leave her compound..." The aide told Reuters by
telephone. He said no reasons were given for the action nor
was Ms. Suu Kyi told how long the restriction would be in
force. - Reuter