Suu Kyi says confident of democracy

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Suu Kyi says confident of democracy coming to Burma
06:41 a.m. Sep 04, 1997 Eastern 
By Deborah Charles 

BANGKOK, Sept 4 (Reuter) - Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi 
said she is confident democracy will come to Burma and that repressive 
tactics by the military rulers show they are worried about the 
opposition. 

Suu Kyi made the comments in a videotaped interview, a copy of which 
taken out of Rangoon and obtained by Reuters on Thursday. 

The Nobel Peace laureate said continued arrests of members of her 
National League for Democracy (NLD) party and restrictions placed on her 
own movements showed the leaders of the ruling State Law and Order 
Restoration Council (SLORC) feared the NLD. 

``I'm not under arrest again but my movements are quite restricted, and 
the movements of those who wish to come and see me are quite 
restricted,'' she said in the interview. 

It was taped at the house of one of her colleagues because the 
journalist was not allowed through barricades in the street blocking 
access to Suu Kyi's home. 

``So it's quite obvious that the SLORC is very nervous about what the 
NLD is capable of doing,'' she said. ``If they were not nervous about 
the strength of the NLD they don't need to enforce these restrictions. 

``Our access to the people has always been blocked by SLORC,'' she said. 
``We have won a lot of sympathy ...I think the people have begun to 
realise more and more this cannot go on.'' 

Suu Kyi, released from six years of house arrest in July 1995, has been 
under strict supervision since last December following large street 
demonstrations against the government. 

The SLORC has blocked access to her home since September and prevented 
her from holding weekend speeches outside her home. 

But Suu Kyi, who said she was ``fighting fit'' after being ill and 
unable to keep up with her normal workload, said she still thought 
democracy would prevail eventually and dialogue with the government 
would happen one day. 

``I am a cautious optimist,'' she said. ``I know that dialogue is 
inevitable because that is the only way in which problems are solved in 
the end.'' 

She said conversations between top NLD officials and SLORC generals in 
July did not constitute dialogue because she was not included. ``At best 
we can think of it as a sounding out to see whether dialogue was 
possible between NLD and the SLORC.'' 

She said she kept pressing her struggle for democracy because of the 
``people for whom I care, people I want to see happy.'' She said her 
party would help facilitate the return of democracy but could not do it 
alone. 

``I alone cannot bring them democracy, nor can the NLD by itself. 
They've all got to participate. I believe that people want democracy and 
because of that we shall get democracy. 

``I would like to think of the NLD as helping the people achieve what 
they want rather than dragging them along to our common goal.'' 

Suu Kyi said current economic problems in Burma like rising prices, 
could cause a more intense push for political change. 

``Economics and politics are interminably connected,'' she said. ``If 
the government is unable to cope with the economy there is bound to be 
push for political change,'' she said. 

The NLD, co-founded by Suu Kyi in 1988, won a landslide victory in 1990 
elections which went unrecognised by the SLORC. MORE .