Myanmar media warn deputy NLD leade

[tinkyi@xxxxxxx]

Myanmar media warn deputy NLD leader faces arrest
  04:58 a.m. Sep 13, 1998 Eastern

YANGON, Sept 13 (Reuters) - Myanmar's state media warned on Sunday that
deputy opposition leader Tin Oo faced possible arrest for trying to
split the country's powerful armed forces.

A commentary in two state-owned Myanmar language newspapers said Tin
Oo, vice chairman of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD),
had been involved in distributing leaflets aimed at sowing discord
within the military.

  ``These days the NLD is sowing the seeds of discord among the Tatmadaw
(armed forces)  by distributing the so called 'An appeal to the Tatmadaw
men'...it is quite clear that U Tin Oo masterminded these plots,'' it
said.

The commentary, by a newspaper columnist who normally echoed the
military government's views, said the deputy NLD chairman was privileged
to have had his jail term shortened to three years by the government
after he pledged not to breach laws.

  ``His defiant violations of the laws, despite a full knowledge of
them, can no longer be forgiven or forgotten...state leaders out of pity
released him on March 15, 1995, to let him serve his remaining sentence
outside on bail...he is liable to the rest of his sentence for what he
is doing now,'' the commentary said.

It was not clear from the commentary if the deputy of NLD leader Aung
San Suu Kyi would be arrested by the authorities.

A phone call to Tin Oo's house in central Yangon was not answered. The
deputy NLD leader had served various jail terms since the 1970s mostly
on charges of plotting against Myanmar military governments.

He was last convicted in 1992 and given a seven-year jail term for
disrupting peace and  security but he was freed in 1995.

The newspaper commentary said the offending written statements, calling
on the military to help the NLD convene parliament, were written by Tin
Oo who was also accused of  getting them broadcast on foreign radio
media last week.

An exiled anti-military opposition front said on Sunday that 15 senior
military officers had been arrested early this month for planning to
meet Aung San Suu Kyi.

The All Burma Students' Democratic Front (ABSDF) said in a statement
received by Reuters that the arrested officers were accused by the
ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) of deviating from
official policy.

``We know that these officers were planning to discuss the political
situation with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and their actions show the growing
desire by soldiers and officers alike  for genuine political reform in
Burma (Myanmar),'' said ABSDF vice chairman Moe Thee Zun.

  He said the arrests were not supported by the rank and file in the
military.

ABSDF, an exiled government based on the Thai-Myanmar border, said it
was told by military sources in Yangon that the 15 officers included six
army colonels, five air force  colonels and three naval majors.