AP-Suu Kyi, ill, ends Myanmar prote

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Suu Kyi, ill, ends Myanmar protest

August 24, 1998
Web posted at: 7:49 a.m. EDT (1149 GMT) In this story: 

?Rare anti-government protest 
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YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- Her health failing, Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi
heeded an appeal from her political party and returned home Monday
afternoon, ending a 13-day roadside standoff with the military government
over her right to travel outside Yangon. 

Leaders of Suu Kyi's political party, the National League for Democracy,
urged her earlier in the day to end the protest because of concerns that
her health had been deteriorating in recent days. 

Suu Kyi's doctors said she was suffering from kidney problems, low blood
pressure, dizziness and urinary tract problems when they were allowed to
examine her Friday. 


Government officials said that Suu Kyi returned to Yangon of her own free
will with two personal physicians accompanying her in her van. 

Rare anti-government protest

The appeal from Suu Kyi's party for her to end her protest came as
political pressure was stepped up against the military regime when some 200
students in Yangon staged the first anti-government street protest in two
years. 

The crowd fled when truckloads of police arrived. No arrests were reported.




Before Monday, Suu Kyi, 53, was last seen by her personal physicians Friday
on a bridge 19 miles outside Yangon where her van has been halted since
August 12. The government denied the doctors access to Suu Kyi on Saturday
and Sunday. 



The NLD said in a statement Monday that the military regime had since
refused permission for doctors and the party chairman, Aung Shwe, to visit
her. 



"Since Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's health is of concern, members of the NLD and
sympathizers of the NLD strongly wish the general secretary to return to
Yangon," the statement said. Daw is an honorific. 

Jailed supporters

Last week, the party had demanded that the government release party members
jailed since May as a condition for Suu Kyi to end the standoff. As of
Sunday, party officials said none had been freed. 

The NLD had set a deadline of last Friday for the government to convene the
parliament elected in 1990, in which the NLD won 82 percent of the seats.
The military refused to honor the vote. 

Parliament confrontation possible

The deadline passed without action. The party then said it would call the
parliament without permission, an action that the government said Monday
would be illegal. 

Past attempts by the NLD to gather members of parliament have been met with
mass arrests. 

Earlier Monday, the government warned the opposition that its plans would
jeopardize possible talks with military leaders. The military has ruled
Myanmar since 1962. 

"Such an action by any individual party would be in contravention of
Myanmar law, and seems designed to derail the ongoing discussions between
the government and the National League for Democracy," said a government
spokesman on condition of anonymity. 

Suu Kyi's roadside protest has highlighted the restrictions on her
movements. 

The 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner and three colleagues were stopped for the
fourth time in two months trying to travel to the western city of Bassein
to meet party members. 

The military held out an olive branch to the NLD earlier this month when
Gen. Khin Nyunt, one of the junta's most powerful generals, met with Aung
Shwe. 

Previous attempts at furthering discussions failed, however, when the
general refused to include Suu Kyi, something her party -- and the
international community -- has demanded.