Reuters : FOCUS-Tight lid on Yangon

[hlaing@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

FOCUS-Tight lid on Yangon on Myanmar anniversary 
06:14 a.m. Aug 08, 1998 Eastern 

By Aung Hla Tun 

YANGON, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Myanmar's military government kept a tight lid on
Yangon on Saturday as exiles marked the 10th anniversary of a crackdown on
pro-democracy activists. 

Witnesses said the streets of the capital were quieter than normal on what
is usually a busy market day and many residemts appeared to be staying in
doors to avoid trouble after rumours of pro-democracy demonstrations. 

Diplomats said there were extra plain-clothes policemen in evidence around
Yangon university, close to the home of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi,
but few uniformed military. 

``I thought students would be on the streets shouting, but there was
nothing. It is quiet,'' said one Asian diplomat. ``The government has
everything very much under control.'' 

The ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) issued warnings last
week ahead of the anniversary of the killing on August 8, 1988 of
demonstrators outside Yangon city hall. 

Opposition figures say several thousand people were killed in the crackdown
which followed the 1988 massacre. The government says the death toll was
only a few dozen. 

The powerful Secretary One of the ruling Khin Nyunt, said in comments
carried in the state-owned English-language daily New Light of Myanmar on
Saturday that ``axe-handles and destructive elements'' were trying to
undermine the government. The word ``axe-handle'' is used by local media to
mean traitors. 

Myanmar opposition leader and 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu
Kyi used the eve of the anniversary to promise to keep fighting for
democracy in her country. 

Suu Kyi, daughter of Myanmar's national hero and founding father Aung San,
told Britain's Channel Four News on Friday evening she would not be
intimidated by the military. 

``I don't think there will be anybody in Burma (Myanmar) who does not
remember what happened 10 years ago tomorrow -- painfully and with deep
regret,'' she said. ``We are determined to do everything we can to make
good our promise to the people that we are going to bring democracy to
Burma.'' 

Myanmar exiles demonstrated on Saturday in several cities to demand that
the government convene a parliament of members elected at a poll in May
1990. 

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won that poll by a big margin
but the result was ignored by the military. 

Some 300 chanting exiles held a rally at the Myanmar embassy in the
Australian capital, Canberra and other demonstrations took place in
Melbourne, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok. 

One organisation of overseas Myanmar students urged the Myanmar people and
pro-democracy sympathisers to wear yellow and carry yellow objects to mark
``Four eights day.'' 

The military government has accused the opposition of trying to stir up
trouble around the anniversary. 

``At present, some big colonialist countries, foreign news agencies under
their control and internal destructionists are spreading fabrications that
the situation in Myanmar is becoming tense, leading toward violence,'' said
Kyin Nyunt. 

``Axe-handles and destructive elements, under the pretext of democracy and
human rights, are attempting to obstruct the government's endeavours
towards ensuring food and social needs of its people,'' he said. 

In an apparent attempt to undermine the opposition's campaign, the
government offered two concessions on Friday. 

The government invited the NLD for talks with deputy Minister for Home
Affairs Myint Maung and said it was prepared to comply with a request from
Suu Kyi that it withdraw its guards from the grounds of her Yangon house. 

But the invitation for talks excluded Suu Kyi and two other NLD members,
and the party turned down the offer, the government said. Diplomats said
any offer of talks that excluded the charismatic Suu Kyi was bound to be
refused. 

Government guards were withdrawn from inside Suu Kyi's premises overnight
but remained at the gates to her residence. 

The security men were posted in Suu Kyi's compound at her request when she
was released from six years of house arrest in 1995. The NLD has not said
why Suu Kyi wanted them removed. 

Suu Kyi's father led the country's independence movement in the 1940s, but
was assassinated in 1947. Burma gained independence from Britain the
following year.