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AFP-Myanmar junta says Aung San Suu




Myanmar junta says Aung San Suu Kyi should be deported as a foreigner
Fri 11 Sep 98 - 13:21 GMT 

YANGON, Sept 11 (AFP) - Myanmar's junta Friday said opposition leader Aung
San Suu Kyi should be deported because she did not meet the requirements of
a citizen and was married to a Briton.

Thus "the democracy princess" had "not been a good Myanmar woman," a signed
commentary in the official New Light of Myanmar daily said, adding her
"life as a Myanmar woman has been degraded ..."

Because she "no longer lives up to the obligations of a Myanmar citizen"
and "has no rights as a Myanmar citizen," she should "should go back to her
British citizen spouse early before the government takes legal action
against her" and issues a "deportation order," it said.

Aung San Suu Kyi's marriage to Briton Michael Aris is a frequent target of
criticism by the junta, which says it proves she is not truly comitted to
Myanmar, despite her being the daughter of assassinated independence hero
Aung San.

The people "feel cold and sick as if struck by malaria as we see that
though they are shouting that they are working for democracy and human
rights, they are persuading people to defy existing laws and making
incitement to riot, inviting anarchic acts which are directly opposite to
the democracy path," added the junta's English-language organ.

The lengthy article, peppered with references to Aung San Suu Kyi as the
"democracy princess," reiterated the junta stance that her National League
for Democracy's (NLD) plan to convene parliament was illegal.

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

The NLD vowed in September to convene the parliament elected in 1990 but
has been warned by the junta the move would be illegal. Dozens of NLD
elected members of parliament and officials have been detained in recent
days in an apparent bud to thwart the plan to convene parliament.

Foreign media outlets were also condemned in the article, which singled out
the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), and the US-funded Voice of
America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA).

"I would like to let it be known that destructionists have no place to live
in Myanmar as the people ... no longer believe the broadcasts and cook-up
stories of BBC, VOA and RFA, the external and internal axe-handles'
instigations and various organisations' calndestine leaflets," it said.

The term "axe-handles" is used by the junta to refer to agents of foreign
governments, a frequent charge levelled at Aung San Suu Kyi and other
opposition figures.

With the country's media tightly controlled by the junta, many Myanmar
people listen to foreign radio broadcasts or, if they can afford it, watch
foreign television broadcasts via satellite.