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MILITARY INTELLIGENCE DETAINS 11 NL



Media Release
Date: August 6, 1998


MILITARY INTELLIGENCE DETAINS 11 NLD OFFICIALS IN CENTRAL BURMA


Officers of Burma's notorious Military Intelligence Service (MIS)
have detained 11 members of the National League for Democracy
(NLD) in Chauk Township in central Burma for allegedly
distributing party literature, according to local sources.

On August 2, 1998, officers from Military Intelligence Service
Unit 15 (MI-15) raided three homes of the NLD officials. The
intelligence officers detained eleven NLD officials and
confiscated NLD papers, literature and materials including tapes
of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi speeches.

The NLD officials detained are: Chauk Township Organising
Committee Chairman U Kyi Toe; Vice-Chairman U Nyunt Wai; General
Secretary U Hla Kyu; and Organising Committee members U Aung
Than, U Hla Thaung, U Win Saung, U Myint Naing, U Than Nyunt, U
Than Win, U Aung Myint and U Khin Maung Aye.

ABSDF Foreign Affairs Secretary Aung Naing Oo says that since the
NLD's demand to convene Parliament, the military has targeted NLD
officials and members in country areas.

"The arrest of these 11 NLD officials is an example of how the
military is targeting the provinces. They are doing this because
these areas are relatively isolated and it is therefore more
difficult for the NLD and other opposition groups to monitor such
repression."

The arrests came after the organizer of Chauk Township Union
Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) reported to local
police that NLD officials had apparently been distributing a
statement known as 'Request to the People of Burma'. However,
according to sources in Chauk, the statement 'Request to the
People of Burma' was already widely distributed in the area in
June by persons unknown. Consequently, the NLD says that Military
Intelligence has used the distribution of the statement as an
excuse to conduct further arrests of party officials.

Chauk is famous for its oilfields and long history of defiance,
which has included strikes against the British and the 1974
Labour Strike that spread across the country. 

Meanwhile, MIS officers have detained U Myint Thein, an elected
NLD Member of Parliament (MP) from Chauk-2 Constituency. He is
being held at the headquarters of Infantry Regiment 13 in Chauk,
and has been charged under Section 5(j) of the 1950 Emergency
Provision Act. 

At the same time, U Kan Oo, an MP from Salin Township near Chauk,
has been held at the headquarters of MI-15 since July 20. He is
also being detained under Section 5(j) of the 1950 Emergency
Provision Act.

All Burma Students' Democratic Front 

For more information please call 01-253 9082, 01-654 4984.