AFP-Aung San Suu Kyi's health deter

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Aung San Suu Kyi's health deteriorating: Myanmar opposition
Sun 23 Aug 98 - 11:15 GMT 

YANGON, Aug 23 (AFP) - The health of Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu
Kyi is deteriorating, her supporters said Sunday, as the Nobel peace
laureate spent a 12th consecutive day locked in a roadside stand-off with
the country's junta.

"Her personal doctor went to examine her on the 21st of August, after which
he sent a medical report to the authorities stating that her general health
condition was getting worse, that her blood pressure is going down and that
she was suffering from giddiness," her National League for Democracyparty
said in a statement.

"She has had no food intake for 10 days, and is sufferring from
constipation and can go into shock at any time," it quoted a doctor as
reporting, adding the medic had been refused permission by the junta to
examine Aung San Suu Kyi on Saturday.

"The NLD is complaining about the prevention of medical treatment being
provided to a citizen. If anything happens to her the authorities will be
held totally responsible."

Aung San Suu Kyi was committed to stay at the site of the stand-off until
all NLD members detained or subject to travel restrictions in recent months
were released, the statement said.

She has remained camped out on a bridge in her minibus 25 kilometres (15
miles) northwest of Yangon since being blocked from travelling to meet
provincial supporters. It was the fourth failed bid to travel outside
Yangon in litle over a month.

The junta, sensitive to international criticism, has been at pains to
demonstrate it is concerned for her welfare. It says it has given her and
two drivers as well as an NLD official who are accompanying her, food,
water and even music cassettes and outdoor furniture. A government
ambulance has also been sent to the scene in case she falls ill, it said.

In a statement Sunday the junta repeated its assertion that it was too
dangerous for her to continue her journey, citing threats of violence
against "prominent persons" by rebel groups.

The threats included one by the insurgent Karen National Union (KNU),
engaged in a low-level separatist conflict with junta forces on Myanmar's
eastern border with Thailand.

However, the KNU is closely allied with scores of Myanmar opposition groups
and foreign analysts dimissed the possibility it would seek to harm the
figurehead of the country's pro-democracy struggle.

"They are on the same side," a foreign diplomat here said.

"And anyway, the KNU's on the other sider of teh country."

The junta has repeatedly urged Aung San Suu Kyi to return to Yangon.