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Bangpost(20-8-99)



Citing an uprising, junta arrests 32  
Suu Kyi accused of planning revolt
Rangoon, AP 
The military regime announced yesterday that 32. more people have been
arrested
for alleged involvement in plans to instigate an uprising next month. 
The party   headed by Nobel Peace Prize-winner  Aung San Suu Kyi was meanwhile
accused of having links with anti-government groups inside and outside the
country involved in the planed revolt. . Colonel Than Tun, a senior spokesman,
told a news conference that efforts to thwart the uprising had led to the
arrest of 32 people, including four women, in the towns of Bago, Ye, Thaton
and
Mawlamyine. Four others were arrested last week. 
Among them, Col Than Tun said, were members of the All Burma Students
Democratic Front (ABSDF), composed of students who.fled the country in 1988
after another uprising was crushed in bloodshed, and members of'Mrs Suu Kyi's
party, the National Leaague for Democracy (NLD). 
It is found that every time the acts of expatriate destructive elements are
exposed, there is the linkage between the incident and the NLD," Col Than Tun
said. "Even badges sold at the NLD headquarters are the same as those seized
from expatriate agitators." 
The badges depict Mrs Suu Kyi's father, Aung San, the country's greatest hero
of independence from Britain. He was assassinated by a rival politician in
1947. 
The military has ruled Burma since Aung San's former comrade, General Ne Win,
led a coup in 1962. 
The government has accused the opposition of waging a propaganda war by
claiming the population of 45 million is on the verge of a new revolt. Indeed,
there is little visible sign that the people are ready to again face the
army's
guns. 
Col Than Tun called the groups appealing for !he revolt "destructive
terrorists" based in neighbouring Thailand and said they were working with
sympathisers in the United States, India, Japan and Britain in collaboration
with  international radio net- works. 
The opposition was also using embassies enjoying  diplomatic immunity as a
cover to issue,statements, tapes and videotaoes to drive "a wedge between the
government and the people," Col Than Tun said. 
The ABSDF has claimed that at least 120 people have been arrested in the,
government's bid to thwart new upheaval.
Col Than Tun acknowledged that 19 people, including 17 high school students,
had been arrested in Mergul in southeastern Burma after an August 12
anti-government student protest march through town.