NEWS-Myanmar Govt Accuses Nld, PDF

[Rangoonp@xxxxxxx]

Subject: NEWS-Myanmar Govt Accuses Nld, PDF of Inciting Riots

Myanmar Govt Accuses Nld, PDF of Inciting Riots

            Xinhua
            23-JAN-99

            YANGON (Jan. 24) XINHUA - Myanmar authorities have
            accused the opposition National League for Democracy
            (NLD) and the People's Defense Force (PDF), which the
            government calls an expatriate insurgent group, of inciting
            riots in the country by spreading anti-government pamphlets
            in the last two months. 

            The authorities said some of their members dropped and
            distributed "instigative" pamphlets in the Institute of
Medicine
            No.2 in Yangon, on buses and at bus stops, and in public
            parks during November and December, the official New Light
            of Myanmar reported Sunday. 

            An organizer of the PDF, formed in 1990 in a Thai border
            area, was charged with distributing the pamphlets and
            propaganda leaflets in collusion with some NLD members. 

            Action is being taken against them for the move, the report
            said. 

            The NLD, a winning party in the 1990 general election, last
            June urged the government to call the parliament. After its
            call met with ignorance, the NLD unilaterally formed a
            10-member "Committee Representing the people's
            Parliament Elected in the Election" and set up the "People's
            parliament" on September 16. 

            On December 8, the Representing Committee further formed
            10 "sub-committees", adopting some resolutions including a
            criminal complaint against the government's National
            Intelligence Bureau for detaining the party's parliament
            representatives-elect and forcing a number of its party
            branches and members to dissolve and resign respectively
            since then. 

            According to the NLD, 747 of its members including its 158
            parliament representatives-elect and 589 organizers are
still
            being held by the government up to now since last May.