Reuters- The animals can't know the

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Myanmar rally condemns opposition ``terrorism''
04:02 p.m Oct 19, 1999 Eastern
YANGON, Oct 19 (Reuters) - More than 24,000 people took part in the second
pro-government rally in Myanmar in less than a week, accusing the
pro-democracy opposition of terrorism, official newspapers reported on
Tuesday.

The papers said the latest rally occurred on Monday in the central town of
Mandalay and followed a similar gathering of about 15,000 people in the
capital Yangon on Friday.

The rallies were an apparent response to a takeover of the Myanmar embassy
in Bangkok by dissident exiles early this month.

Participants blamed ``terrorist'' acts, that have occured since the military
took direct power in 1988 by crushing a pro-democracy uprising, on the
opposition National League for Democracy, armed ethnic groups and dissidents
in exile.

``I would like to ask the government to not hold any dialogue with persons
who are at the level of terrorists and destructionists,'' the papers
reported medical superintendent Khin Swe Win as telling the Mandalay rally.

``There is no reason to make negotiations with the destructive
perpetrators.''

The Yangon government has long resisted a dialogue with the NLD, which won
the country's last election in 1990 by a landslide but was never allowed to
govern.

The government has been embarrassed by the October 1-2 siege of its embassy
in the Thai capital which ended when five armed Myanmar dissidents freed 89
hostages and escaped in a Thai government helicopter.

Although condemned by the NLD, the bloodless publicity stunt highlighted
opposition demands to convene the 1990-elected parliament.

The NLD accused Myanmar military intelligence of organising Friday's rally.

In the past the Myanmar government has used similar rallies to put pressure
on the opposition.