Suu Kyi's party issues direct chall

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Suu Kyi's party issues direct challenge to military government 

                              The Associated Press
                           08/21/98 11:16 AM Eastern

               YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- Aung San Suu Kyi's political
               party said today it will convene the parliament that was
               elected in 1990 -- the most direct challenge it has ever
               issued to Myanmar's military government. 

               Today was the deadline the Nobel Peace Prize winner's
               party had set for Myanmar's military government to convene
               that parliament -- a demand that the military says it will
               never do. 

               The National League for Democracy, Suu Kyi's party, won
               82 percent of the seats in parliament in the 1990 vote.
               Although the military promised before the election to hand
               over power, it ignored the election results. The military has
               ruled Myanmar, also known as Burma, since 1962. 

               "Failure to hold a parliament session by the authorities
               amounts to ignoring the wishes of the people," Suu Kyi's
               party said today. 

               The statement is expected to ignite a major confrontation
               with the government that could result in arrests of many NLD
               members. 

               The military government has in the past launched massive
               arrests of NLD members to prevent them from gathering at
               Suu Kyi's Yangon home for party meetings. 

               Meanwhile, Suu Kyi was spending her 10th day in her car
               20 miles outside Yangon in a protest over the military's
               restrictions on her right to travel freely outside the capital.


               Supporters say Suu Kyi's health is failing after 10 days of
               living in her van. She was stopped at a police checkpoint for
               the fourth time in two months last Wednesday as she and
               colleagues attempted to travel to the city of Bassein. 

               Suu Kyi has offered to end the protest and return to Yangon
               if the military releases imprisoned party members. 

               Of the 385 NLD members elected in 1990, 181 are either in
               jail, have died, been forced into exile, been stripped of their
               lawmakers status or forced to resign from the party. The rest
               are living under intense harassment from the government. 

               The military government says the 1990 vote was for
               delegates to a constitutional convention and claims said no
               parliament can be called until a new charter is written. Suu
               Kyi's party disagrees. 

               Protests against the military's failure to convene the
               parliament took place in Bangkok and Tokyo today and were
               expected later in Washington. 

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