AP-Myanmar Opposition Claims Arrest (r)

[tinkyi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: AP-Myanmar Opposition Claims Arrests 

Myanmar Opposition Claims Arrests
Thursday, August 12, 1999; 11:32 a.m. EDT

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- A Myanmar opposition group said Thursday that
there had been a new round of arrests of anti-government activists in the
same area where 19 people were reportedly detained last month.

The National Council of the Union of Burma said about 40 people had been
arrested recently in the Bago area, 40 miles northeast of the Southeast
Asian country's capital, Yangon.

The council is a coalition of exiled political and ethnic minority groups
opposed to the military government of Myanmar, also known as Burma.

A government spokesman denied the claim to The Associated Press.

The opposition group's statement said a large number of small demonstrations
and other protest activities have taken place in the past few months in
Bago, which is also known as Pegu. Public protests are almost unknown under
the repressive military regime.

Last month 19 other people were detained in Bago for preparing
anti-government leaflets, according to the human rights group Amnesty
International and an exile opposition group, the All Burma Students'
Democratic Front.

The government said it had detained some people for their association with
the student front, which it considers a terrorist group.

Myanmar's military government has been harshly criticized by human rights
groups and Western countries for suppression of civil liberties and refusal
to turn over power to an elected government.

The opposition statement said the newly detained people included members of
the National League for Democracy party, which won a 1990 general election
but never took power because the military would not allow parliament to
convene.

The statement also alleged that the fathers of two arrested activists were
dismissed from their jobs because of their children's political activities.