AFP :

[hlaing@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Myanmar crackdown anniversary passes peacefully, but tensions rise
Sat 08 Aug 98 - 11:45 GMT 

YANGON, Aug 8 (AFP) - The bitter 10th anniversary of a bloody military
crackdown in Myanmar which left thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators
dead passed peacefully Saturday amid rising tensions between the country's
junta and its opponents.

The junta, residents and foreign diplomats here reported no incidents,
although security was said to have been stepped up at strategic points
around the capital.

The low-key occasion was in sharp contrast to events in the new homes of
Myanmar nationals overseas, with hundreds of activists taking to the
streets in Thailand, Myanmar, India and Japan to noisily denounce the
junta.

Additional plainclothes police or intelligence agents had been deployed
outside the home of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and more
plainclothes agents kept a low-profile watch elsewhere, diplomats and
residents said.

The city was also unusually quiet, with residents apprehensive about the
politically charged anniversary.

"There is much less traffic," a western diplomat added.

"In my opinion, it is about one third its normal volume for a Saturday."

Markets were open but were also quieter than usual. 

"To me, it is really an indication people are just staying at home," the
diplomat said.

One diplomatic source said Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy
(NLD) had told its supporters not to seek confrontation with the junta
during the anniversary Saturday.

"If anything, it is quieter than usual," another diplomat at a western
embassy said.

The weeks leading up to the anniversary have seen a marked rise in
political tensions, culminating Friday with a call by opposition groups for
a mass campaign to force the junta from power in the same spirit as the
doomed 1988 pro-democracy movement.

The call also came ahead of an August 21 deadline set by the NLD for the
junta to convene parliament or face unspecified consequences.

The NLD-led opposition won 1990 polls by a landslide but the junta has
refused to relinquish power.

The junta has been accused of widespread human rights abuses, including
forced labour, torture and a campaign of jailing or restricting the
movements of opposition figures.

"Do not lose heart," Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi told Myanmar
people living outside the poverty-stricken state's borders in a
pre-recorded address shown to journalists in Bangkok late Friday.

"The day will come. We will never give up, so don't (you) give up," the
leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party added.

Unofficial estimates of the August 8, 1988 crackdown put the toll in the
thousands but the junta has conceded several hundred died in what it called
a legitimate reaction to a terrorist threat to state stability.

Aung San Suu Kyi's comments came as the NLD dismissed an invitation for
talks with the junta, which excluded her and co-chairman Tin Oo.

The junta expressed "regret" the invitation had been turned down, saying
such a meeting could have fostered "better understanding, as well as
confidence-building between the two sides."

But opposition groups based outside the isolated country said they would
not be satisfied until the generals faced justice for the 1988 massacre,
and called for a nationwide campaign to force the junta from power.

"It is time to indict SPDC officials for crimes against humanity, and
trafficking in narcotics," said Tin Maung Win, a member of the presidium of
the major opposition umbrella group National Coalition of the Union of
Burma (NCUB).

"They are not the government of Burma. They must be removed immediately."

Opposition leaders added they expected rapid developments in Myanmar around
the August 21 deadline.

A junta spokesman poured scorn on a call by opposition groups for a mass
campaign of dissent to dislodge the military rulers.

"NCGUB and NCUB and the ABSDF have been saying so many things, but if
carefully scrutinized most of their statements are found to be baseless," a
junta spokesman told AFP, using the acronyms for three major opposition
groups operating outside Myanmar.

Opposition leaders were meeting in a rebel-held zone of Myanmar on the Thai
border to finalise details of the plan for the campaign, which it called
"PP-21," the groups said Friday.

"Never heard of PP-21," the junta spokesman said in a statement. "Sounds
like a diet drink of some kind."