NEWS - Suu Kyi Appeals to Myanmar M

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Subject: NEWS - Suu Kyi Appeals to Myanmar Military

Suu Kyi Appeals to Myanmar Military

 .c The Associated Press

 YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi asked the
army to join in building a democratic Myanmar on Saturday, the eve of
the 11th anniversary of a violently crushed uprising.

Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt, one of the regime's leaders, signaled that the
government still views Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, and her
party as traitors serving ``neocolonialists'' bent on creating fresh
unrest and taking over the country.

Exiled opposition groups urged people in Myanmar, also known as Burma,
to wear yellow and light colors Sunday to commemorate those who lost
their lives in the uprising, which began Aug. 8, 1988, and was crushed
in bloodshed six weeks later.

The uprising is known in this numerologically obsessed country as
``8-8-88'' and anti-government groups outside the country have already
expressed hopes of a new revolt on Sept. 9, or 9-9-99, though there
appears to be little chance of another uprising.

Suu Kyi, 53, daughter of independence hero Aung San, has prepared an
address for broadcast on foreign radio - her words are not allowed in
Myanmar's state-controlled media. The text was released Saturday to news
agencies in Bangkok, Thailand, by an activist group.

She urged the military to work with her party, the National League for
Democracy, in a partnership to bring democracy to the country and lift
the economy, which ranks as one of the poorest in Asia.

The military has consistently refused Suu Kyi's appeals for a dialogue
or imposed conditions that her party will not meet.

AP-NY-08-07-99 1400EDT

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