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>AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASE
>
>4 September 2000
>
>AI Index ASA 16/016/2000 - News Service Nr. 169
>
>
>                      Myanmar: Aung San Suu Kyi at risk
>
>The Myanmar government should immediately reveal the whereabouts of Daw
>Aung San Suu Kyi and her colleagues, who have been held incommunicado since
>2 September, Amnesty International said today, expressing grave concern for
>their safety.
>
>      "The whereabouts of the two National League for Democracy (NLD)
>leaders is still not clear, which increases fears for their welfare.  If
>they are being confined to their homes, we strongly urge the Myanmar
>government to allow them freedom of movement.  The government should also
>remove the security forces surrounding Daw Suu's home compound and the NLD
>headquarters in Yangon," the organization said.
>
>      At approximately 1.30am on 2 September 200 riot police forcibly
>removed Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, NLD General Secretary, U Tin U, NLD
>Vice-Chairman, and 12 NLD youth leaders from Dallah, a suburb of Yangon.
>Subsequently diplomats, the press, and others have been blocked by security
>forces from visiting any NLD leaders, including Daw Suu.  The group had
>been at the roadside there since 24 August, after they had been stopped by
>security forces while attempting to visit NLD members 30 miles outside the
>capital.
>
>      The NLD headquarters were raided over the weekend, when Military
>Intelligence officials removed files and documents from their offices.
>Today the government issued a statement claiming that all 10 NLD Central
>Executive Committee members, including U Tin U and Daw Suu "have been
>requested to stay at their respective residences", while denying that they
>are held under house arrest.
>
>      The government also said that they were conducting an investigation at
>NLD headquarters about a recent visit there of foreigners.  The statement
>further alleged that "certain quarters of the NLD have been conspiring
>with...an armed terrorist group, God's Army".
>
>      The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC, Myanmar's military
>government) frequently claims that the NLD has links with armed opposition
>groups operating on the Thai-Myanmar border.  Such claims are routinely
>used to justifiy the arrests of dozens of NLD members and supporters.
>However, Amnesty International believes that there is no evidence of
>support by the NLD, which has always espoused non-violence, for armed
>opposition groups operating outside of the country.
>
>Background
>Over the last four years the SPDC has arrested hundreds of NLD members for
>their peaceful political activities.  The government has also forced
>thousands of NLD members to resign from the party, and has closed down
>offices around the country.  The NLD is a legal political party which won
>the 1990 elections.
>
>      This level of intimidation is all part of the general repression by
>the SPDC against the NLD and student activists.  Hundreds of them are held
>in poor conditions, serving long terms for peacefully exercising their
>rights to freedom of expression and assembly.
>
>      God's Army is an armed opposition group which broke away from the
>Karen National Union (KNU -- one of the main ethnic minority armed groups
>fighting the central Myanmar Government) in 1997 and is led by 12-year-old
>twin Karen boys.  After the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors, a group of
>exiled young Burmese activists, seized the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok in
>October 1999, God's Army provided sanctuary to them at the base in
>Kamaplaw, Myanmar.
>
>      In January 2000 the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors seized a
>hospital in Raatchburi, western Thailand, holding the patients and staff
>hostage for 24 hours.  The siege ended when Thai security forces stormed
>the hospital, shooting dead all 10 young Burmese men.
>
>
>\ENDS
>
>public document
>****************************************
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>London, UK, on +44 20 7413 5566
>Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London WC1X 0DW   web :
>http://www.amnesty.org