AFP-Rumours and intrigue as Myanmar

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Rumours and intrigue as Myanmar stand-off hits new peak
Thu 20 Aug 98 - 06:17 GMT 

YANGON, Aug 20 (AFP) - Political tensions rose in Myanmar Thursday a day
before an opposition deadline for the junta to convene the elected
parliament as the generals came in for more international criticism.

The National League for Democracy (NLD) led by Nobel peace laureate Aung
San Suu Kyi has demanded that the parliament elected in 1990 be convened by
Friday. Otherwise it has warned of unspecified conseqences.

NLD chairman Aung Shwe met junta chiefs earlier this week as Aung San Suu
Kyi remained locked in a stand-off on a rural highway with authorities who
have refused to let her visit provincial supporters.

"We have always said the deadline was unrelaistic and the government would
not bend," said a western diplomat.

"That hasn't really changed. But there are some indications the meeeting
might have broken new ground."

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

Yangon markets are abuzz with rumurs that unrest will erupt if the junta
fails to convene parliament. There have also been widespread rumours of the
impending release of key political prisoners following the meeting.

But officials from both the government and the NLD say the role of Aung San
Suu Kyi remains a sticking point.

"She is not officially recognised as a political figure," said an Asian
diplomat. "So even if they bring the NLD into a new government, they can't
accept her without losing face."

Aung San Suu Kyi was Thursday spending her ninth day in a minibus parked on
a small bridge after being blocked from travelling further out of town,
diplomats said.

"She is not moving but we think she will be back before the deadline," said
one of the foreign envoys.

The junta also came under pressure overseas. The International Labour
Organization said forced labour of women, children and old people was
pervasive and those who resisted were often tortured, raped and murdered.

An ILO-appointed commission of inquiry, in a report issued in Geneva
Wednesday, charged that the government, and particularly the military,
"treat the civilian population as an unlimited pool of unpaid forced
labourers and servants at their disposal."

These actions are part of a political system "built on the use of force and
intimidation to deny the people of Myanmar democracy and the rule of law,"
it said.

The NLD had declined previous invitations for talks with the junta, most
recently on August 7, because the invitations excluded Aung San Suu Kyi and
other key party members, including co-vice chairman Tin Oo, from the
dialogue.

NLD and junta officials met in December but the last high-level talks were
in July 1997.

Diplomats said Tuesday's meeting did not mean Aung San Suu Kyi had been
sidelined. Some said the talks could have been arranged to take place while
she remained in the stand-off outside Yangon, her fourth thwarted bid in
little over a month to meet provincial supporters.

She, a party official and two drivers have remained on the bridge 25
kilometres (15 miles) northwest of Yangon since being blocked on Wednesday
last week.

The NLD Wednesday urged the public to support the convening of parliament,
saying democracy was in the interests of the country's 45 million people.

"A democratic parliament is aware of all citizens," it said in an open
letter. "The NLD and other elected members of parliament have a duty to
fulfill the people's desire. The officially elected MPs need public support
to carry out their duties."

In Bangkok some 30 exiled Myanmar students maintaned their vigil outisde
the Myanmar embassy to support the call for parliament to be convened.