[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index ][Thread Index ]

AP-Group: 19 Detained in Myanmar



Monday July 26 8:55 AM ET

Group: 19 Detained in Myanmar

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Authorities in Myanmar have detained 19 people -
including the wife and 3-year-old daughter of an opposition activist - in a
bid to stop an anti-government march, an opposition group reported today.

The All-Burma Students' Democratic Front said eight of those detained were
relatives of Kyaw Wunna, a pro-democracy activist sought by authorities.

A government spokesman, speaking on customary condition of anonymity,
responded in a statement faxed to Bangkok that ``some political extremists
were called in for questioning'' and that Kyaw Wunna was not among them.

The opposition group, composed of student exiles from protests in 1988 that
were crushed by the military, said that the roundup was triggered by calls
for a protest march July 19 in the central city of Bago.

The date was the Martyrs Day holiday, commemorating the assassination of
Myanmar's greatest independence hero, Gen. Aung San, and eight colleagues by
a rival politician in 1947.

Aung San was the father of Aung San Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace
Prize and leader of the opposition. The military has governed Myanmar, also
known as Burma, since 1962 and keeps an iron lid on dissent.

The student group said that those arrested included two former student
leaders from 1988, Ko Lwin Moe Myint, 27, and Ko Myint Oo, 30. Apart from
Kyaw Wunna's family, the remaining detainees were largely students, doctors
and teachers, the group said.