Reuters-Myanmar military holds 54 f

[hlaing@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Myanmar military holds 54 for sparking unrest 
03:01 a.m. Oct 07, 1998 Eastern 					

By Aung Hla Tun 

YANGON, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Myanmar said on Wednesday that 54 people,
including 23 members of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD),
had been detained for sparking student unrest and demonstrations in August
and September. 

Among those detained were activists of anti-government Myanmar exile groups
who had obtained funds and conspired with foreign organisations to incite
the disturbances, military government spokesman Colonel Thein Swe told a
news conference. 

Foreign organisations involved in the alleged plot were the New York-based
Open Society Institute (OSI) founded by billionaire George Soros, and the
Thai chapter of the Vatican City-based World Society of Jesuit Refugee
Services (JRS). 

Exiled Myanmar groups named were the National Coalition Government of the
Union of Burma (NCGUB), the Karen National Union (KNU) guerrilla group, the
All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF) and the Alternative Asean
Network of Burma. 

``Those detained are in custody now and arrangements will be made to take
legal action against them,'' said Thein Swe. 

NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi and some party members, working with the
expatriate activist-backed All Burma Student's Union (ABSU) and the exiled
and foreign organisations, had joined forces to stir up the unrest, the
government said in a statement. 

Suu Kyi and NLD officials were unavailable for comment on the government
charges. 

The statement said they had timed the unrest, which included student
protests at some university campuses, a street demonstration by 18
foreigners in August, car sit-in protests by Suu Kyi in July and August,
and the NLD call for convening a parliament of representatives elected in
the May 1990 election. 

The military ignored the results of the 1990 election, which the NLD swept.


The ruling State Peace and Development Council has flatly refused to call a
parliament as sought by the NLD, and the opposition party has set up a
panel to act for the parliament. 

Spokesman Thein Swe said the 54 people detained now did not include NLD
members and elected representatives who have been questioned in government
guest houses. The NLD has said that since May 27, the number of its MPs and
members held by the military totalled 967. 

The groups identified by the government as being involved in inciting
unrest were operating from the Thai side of the border, the government
statement said. 

Touching on the involvement of the OSI and the JRS, the statement said they
had aided and financed the activists. ``The OSI and JRS only constitute the
tip of the iceberg for there are a large number of other groups similarly
occupied,'' it added. 

``As a matter of fact, it is doubtful if the religious leaders of the
Vatican are even aware that the JRS in Thailand has been aiding and
abetting those insurgents and lending them a hand in committing violence
and unrest in the country,'' it said. 

``It is possible that the leaders of the Vatican would be most pained if
they should come to hear of these transgressions.'' 

But a JRS spokesman in Thailand denied the group's involvement in any
Myanmar unrest. 

``We had absolutely no involvement in the student demonstrations or any
others demonstrations, absolutely none,'' said Jon Greenaway, information
and research officer at the Jesuit Refugee Service Asia Pacific office in
Bangkok. 

He said that though agency officials made occasional visits to Myanmar,
they were not politically motivated and the organisation had no permanent
presence in the country. 

Confusion may have arisen because the agency offered counselling services
to people seeking refugee status as a step towards asylum and some of them
were Myanmar students, he said. 

``This is a counselling and advisory service with no political
involvement,'' he added. 

The ABSDF's foreign secretary Naing Oo said the latest arrests merely
confirmed pro-democracy activists were indeed being detained by the Myanmar
government. 

``The arrests are an admission by the government that pro-democracy people
are being detained in Myanmar,'' he said.