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Myanmar junta gives opposition preventive medicine
08:59 a.m. Apr 22, 1998
Eastern
By Rajan Moses
BANGKOK, April 22 (Reuters) -
Myanmar's ruling junta has forcibly fed the opposition
National League for Democracy (NLD) a dose of bitter preventive
medicine by jailing a prominent woman leader of the organisation,
analysts said on Wednesday.
The ruling State Peace and
Development Council's (SPDC) jailed the NLD's San San for
breaching conditions of an amnesty under which she was released from
prison while serving a 25-year sentence for treason.
A senior NLD leader, Tin Oo,
told Reuters the jailing of San San indicated the SPDC had resumed
harassing the opposition and signalled a new crackdown.
In past months, the SPDC
allowed NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi to hold party meetings at her
lakeside residence in Yangon, but stopped her from holding
meetings in the townships.
``The sentence signals the
resumption of political harassment and crackdown on the opposition to
deter us from doing our duty,'' Tin Oo said.
But Yangon-based diplomats
said the move may simply be a warning to the NLD not to rock
the status quo.
``It may be a warning to the
NLD on its future activities. The message to the NLD may
be...don't stage activities against the government and there is
possibility for a dialogue, but if you do something we will take
action,'' said an Asian diplomat.
San San, 60, was formerly
deputy chairman of the NLD's Yangon division and a leading member
of its women's group.
On Tuesday, the exiled All
Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF) said she had been
jailed for taking part in a British Broadcasting Corp interview
critical of the SPDC. The SPDC has denied this.
Tin Oo said San San had
answered questions from the media because the telephones of
other NLD leaders had been disconnected and they could not be
contacted.
Another diplomat said: ``What
has happened seems very much like business as usual in Myanmar
and I don't think it signals anything one way or the other.''
An SPDC spokesman said San San
was jailed for breaching legal conditions, but gave no
details. ``It is normal in any country to take legal action against anyone
for breaching rules and regulations,'' he said. ``This is definitely not the
start of a crackdown on the opposition,'' he added.
The spokesman said the exiled
student groups, Amnesty International and others
usually were critical of Myanmar around the time the United Nation
Commission on Human Rights met.
``These anti-Myanmar
government elements have been playing this game very annoyingly and have
managed to dupe almost everyone,'' he added.
The U.N. body, at a meeting on
Tuesday in Geneva, adopted a European Union motion
condemning Myanmar for human rights abuses including extrajudicial
executions, torture, and repression of ethnic and religious
minorities.
The military seized power in
1988 after a bloody crackdown against pro-democracy protests. The
NLD swept a 1990 general election but the junta ignored the result.
It has ruled with an iron
hand, detaining and releasing thousands of NLD members and supporters and
disrupting its meetings.
``At the moment there is no
positive sign in the political field. The detention of NLD members
continues and there has been no dialogue between the two
sides,'' said the Asian diplomat.
``The test could come by late
May when the NLD usually holds its party congress...to see what
happens then,'' he added.
The SPDC tried to woo the NLD
into a dialogue last year, but overtures by the SPDC's
Secretary One, Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt, were spurned.
The NLD said it could not have
a dialogue with the junta unless Nobel laureate Suu Kyi was
included, but the SPDC has so far refused. ^REUTER
Copyright 1998 ReutersLimited.