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Burma Police Scuffle With The Activ



c The Associated Press  

RANGOON, Burma (AP) - Riot police scuffled with Aung San Suu Kyi's supporters
Tuesday, surrounding the pro-democracy activist's car during a rare foray
away from her home. 

Suu Kyi left her compound to see young members of her National League for
Democracy in Mayangon, a Rangoon suburb. The trip was made in defiance of
government orders. 

As Suu Kyi's motorcade approached the Mayangon office, a dozen supporters
rushed past police barricades toward her car. A scuffle ensued with
baton-wielding riot police who had put up barbed-wire barricades to block the
road. 

After a two-hour standoff, during which police ringed Suu Kyi's car and
surrounded her 70 supporters, police ordered the supporters and reporters
onto trucks, and drove them away. They were let off the trucks later. 

The government said in a statement that Suu Kyi and party elders Aung Shwe,
Tin Oo and Kyi Maung had lunch at the Mayangon office but no meeting took
place. A party member, however, said about 10 youth-wing members joined the
lunch. 

A government official accused Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize,
of being confrontational and refusing to hold the meeting inside her compound
for her own safety as the government had demanded. The official spoke on
condition of anonymity. 

On Sept. 27, the government allowed Suu Kyi's party to hold its first
congress in seven years. Previous attempts in 1996 led to the detention of
hundreds of her supporters. 

Suu Kyi was permitted to visit one of her party's offices in northern Rangoon
last week. She has pledged to visit all her party's offices to reorganize its
youth wing. 

The daughter of independence hero Aung San, Suu Kyi emerged as the leader of
Burma's pro-democracy movement during an uprising in 1988. In 1989, she was
placed under house arrest and released six years later. 

Her party overwhelmingly won legislative elections in 1990, but the regime
never allowed the parliament to convene. 

AP-NY-10-28-97 1454EST