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Tuesday, January 4 8:09 PM SGT
Suu Kyi, Myanmar junta begin new millennium with old battleYANGON, Jan 4 (AFP) -Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday urged Myanmar's generals not to cling to power in the face of the country's worsening condition during a speech marking the 52nd anniversary of independence from Britain. The National League for Democracy (NLD) leader's speech to 500 party faithful followed a verbal lashing from the junta at a rally earlier in the day branding her a "terrorist", an exchange observers said set the tone of "business as usual" for the new millennium. "Do not cling to power just for your own interests," Aung San Suu Kyi said, adding the freedoms and human rights enjoyed by the people of Myanmar had deteriorated since colonial times. Using ammunition provided by a recent controversial World Bank report, the NLD also issued an 11-page declaration lambasting the ruling military for driving the economy into the ground and closing universities. The junta earlier branded the NLD and Aung San Suu Kyi "terrorists" and "traitors" and called on the people to destroy them. More than 15,000 members of government-sponsored associations gathered in Yangon's People's Park to listen to the Independence Day message from junta chairman General Than Shwe. "It is imperative to oppose and remove with the people's might the destructive danger of the terrorist and destructive group heading for utter devastation," said the message read by Yangon's military commander and run in all state media. In the speech, read out following a flag-hoisting ceremony, Than Shwe also called for people "to oppose the neocolonialists from abroad" who were assisting "internal national traitors." Although Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and her NLD were not named, the language used was that typically reserved for them by the junta which has repeatedly accused them of having foreign backing. It also echoed language used by the Nobel peace prize winner and daughter of independence hero General Aung San in a message delivered after her release from house arrest by the junta in 1995, observers said. The NLD, which won 1990 elections but were never allowed to take power, was scheduled to release a message at a meeting attended by Aung San Suu Kyi later Tuesday. "Since the messages and declarations read out at the two mass rallies severely criticised each other, it all indicates the fact the struggle for power will continue unabated as before," one observer and Yangon resident said. The exiled "government" of Myanmar said earlier in a statement issued in neighbouring Thailand that colonial rule by Britain, which ended on January 4, 1948, had been preferable to that of the military. The National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB) said the country had been in a state of "civil war" since independence on January 4, 1948, and called for talks with the military. The NCGUB lamented the military's takeover of power in 1962 saying it did nothing to restore peace and stability and urged people to rise up against the junta. In 1962 General Ne Win led a military coup against an elected government and formed his own secretive and idiosyncratic regime which sealed Myanmar off from the rest of the world. He was toppled when outrage over both a currency shake-up which demonetized small bills and the impoverishment of the country through 26 years of isolation led to nationwide pro-democracy demonstrations in 1988. A new junta subsequently brutally suppressed the uprising and organised national elections in 1990, which were won overwhelmingly by the NLD. The junta refused to hand over power and is blamed for widespread human rights violations. Many of the opposition members elected were imprisoned or fled abroad. |