|
Myanmar junta seals Suu Kyi's
party headquarters
By Aung Hla Tun YANGON, May 31 (Reuters) - Myanmar security officials sealed the headquarters of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party in the capital on Saturday amid mounting criticism of the pro-democracy icon by the country's ruling military. Sources close to the junta told Reuters that the Nobel laureate, released from house arrest in May last year, was also being returned by authorities to the capital on Sunday, cutting short a month-long tour of northern Myanmar due to end on June 4. Witnesses said the security officials arrived at the National League for Democracy (NLD) headquarters in the early afternoon and put a put a large padlock on the door and removed a party flag. The keyhole on the lock was sealed and several plainclothes officers were posted near the entrance of the building, they said. The military government said on Friday it had told Suu Kyi to tone down her public appearances on her northern tour, saying large crowds had caused ``traffic jams and commotion.'' State-run media also reported scuffles between NLD members and anti-Suu Kyi protesters. The reports said several people were injured. The NLD, which swept to a landslide victory in 1990 elections but was never allowed to rule, has often complained that Suu Kyi has been harassed by government supporters on her trips outside Yangon. The junta said on Friday hundreds of NLD members from several towns had gathered in Monywa, 600 km (370 miles) north of Yangon, just West of Mandalay to see Suu Kyi on Thursday. It said Suu Kyi toured the town for three hours in a convoy of 16 cars and 150 motorcycles. ``Responsible government officials had to warn the NLD to understand the people, avoid startling them, causing commotion among them,'' the junta said in a statement faxed to Reuters. The closure of the NLD's headquarters came days before the scheduled arrival of a top U.N. envoy, Razali Ismail, due to visit from June 6 to 10 in a bid to revive stalled talks between the junta and opposition on the political future. The talks have been stalled in a confidence-building phase since they began in late 2000, after Suu Kyi was put under house arrest. The government has never responded to Suu Kyi's calls for substantive dialogue on political change. Suu Kyi also spent six years under house arrest from 1989 to 1995 after emerging as the country's main opposition leader during a failed pro-democracy uprising in 1988. |