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Reuters-Suu Kyi planning to call ``



Suu Kyi planning to call ``parliament'' in September 
06:47 a.m. Aug 30, 1998 Eastern 

YANGON, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi told
supporters this weekend she intended to convene a ``People's Parliament''
in September, sources in her party said on Sunday. 

Plans announced earlier this month by Suu Kyi's National League for
Democracy (NLD) to convene a parliament have put the opposition on a
collision course with the ruling military State Peace and Development
Council (SPDC). 

``In her informal meeting with about 500 NLD members who came to ask after
her health on Saturday afternoon, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said the NLD would
go ahead with its plan for a People's Parliament in September, but she did
not mention an exact date,'' an NLD source told Reuters on Sunday. 

Government officials could not be reached for comment on Sunday but have
previously said such a move would be illegal. 

State-run media have suggested the opposition could be outlawed and Suu Kyi
deported if the party proceeds with its plans. 

The opposition has threatened to convene a parliament, including
representatives of different ethnic groups, after the military ignored its
calls to convene on August 21 an assembly based on the results of a 1990
general election. 

The military has said a parliament cannot be convened before a constitution
is finalised. The NLD says the government is stalling. 

The NLD easily won the 1990 election but the result was never recognised by
Myanmar's military, which has since arrested scores of opposition members
and curtailed the party's activities. 

Relations between the two sides appeared to be easing as high-level
representatives of the two sides met for the first talks for more than a
year on August 18. 

But progress has stalled as the administration refuses to hold talks with
1991 Nobel Peace Laureate Suu Kyi, a condition the NLD says is a
prerequisite for genuine dialogue. 

The state-run press has repeatedly attacked the opposition, which has
responded with a series of protests including the first student
demonstrations in Yangon since 1996. 

In a speech quoted in state-run papers on Saturday, Secretary General
Number One of the SPDC, Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt, condemned the
opposition as traitors motivated and supported by foreign powers. 

Articles carried in the same papers said power could not be handed to the
NLD and that Western-style democracy was an inappropriate form of
government for Myanmar.