AFP-Myanmar junta steps up media of

[hlaing@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

-Wed 19 Aug 98 - 05:12 GMT 

YANGON, Aug 19 (AFP) - Myanmar's official media Wednesday stepped up its
offensive against opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, saying the Nobel
peace laureate could not understand the country because she had "mixed with
alien blood."

"She tried to destabilize the nation to belittle it at the ASEAN meeting
which was held from 24 to 29 July," the New Light of Myanmar daily said in
a commentary, referring to the National League for Democracy (NLD) leader's
failed attempt to defy the junta by leaving Yangon during a meeting of
foreign ministers from the regional forum in Manila.

"She also made instigations to cause a peasant unrest as there was a bad
harvest due to bad weather.

"Does she know that her attempts are so ugly and always missing the target
and only hurting the nation and its people?"

The newspaper also queried how the daughter of independence hero Aung San,
who is revered by both the junta and the opposition, could have taken the
line she has. It suggested she had been tainted by her marriage to a
foreigner, Briton Michael Aris.

"Although she is a daughter of Bogyoke (General) Aung San, she has a wrong
spiritual atitude as she has been mixed with alien blood," it added.

Aung San Suu Kyi's marriage to Aris is a frequent point of criticism by the
junta, which uses it to suggest she is not committed to Myanmar.

Although she spent many years in Europe, she has remained in Myanmar since
returning here in 1988 before a military crackdown on pro-democracy
demonstrators which left thousands dead, according to unofficial tolls.

She was placed under house arrest by the junta from 1989 to 1995 but her
National League for Democracy Party still won 1990 polls by a landslide.
The junta has refused to relinquish power.