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>From: brelief@xxxxxxx (Ken and Visakha Kawasaki)
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>From The Japan Times 
>October 7, 1995
>
>SUU KYI LEAVES RANGOON TO VISIT BUDDHIST PRIEST
>
>RANGOON (UPI-Kyodo) Myanmar's (Burma's) opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi
paid her
>respects to a revered Buddhist priest Thursday while on her first trip out
of Rangoon since her release
>from house arrest.
>
>Sources close to her relatives said Suu Kyi, 50, left the Myanmarese
(Burmese) capital early
>Wednesday to pay homage to the presiding priest of the monastery on
Thar-Myin-Nya Hill, in the
>jungle 32 km from Pa-an and 160 km east of Rangoon.
>
>The priest is believed by devotees to be an "arhat," or saint, who
possesses supernatural spiritual
>powers.
>
>The Myanmarese sources said Suu Kyi, who was released July 10 from nearly
six years of house
>arrest, will return to Rangoon on Friday.
>
>Suu Kyi has maintained a relatively low political profile since her
release, giving speeches to crowds
>of supporters who gather daily in front of her suburban Rangoon residence.
>
>Myanmar's military government, meanwhile, has virtually ignored her in the
official press, while
>pressing ahead with the drafting of a new constitution that will guarantee
the army's continued
>dominant political role.
>
>In an official notification issued Wednesday, the ruling junta said the
700-member national
>constitutional convention, which has been in recess since April 8, will be
reconvened on Nov. 28, a
>month later than scheduled.
>
>The notification, signed by Lt. Gen. Myo Nyunt, chairman of the National
Convention Commission,
>said the postponement was made in response to the wishes of delegates who
want to attend agricultural
>and religious activities coinciding with the end of the monsoon season. 
>
>At its last session from March 29 to April 7, the convention took up the
sensitive issue of creating self
>- administered areas for minority races.
>
>Convention delegates decided that only six of the country's 135 ethnic
minority peoples have the
>requisite population size and geographical concentrations to qualify for
the status of self - administered
>areas.
>
>These ethnic groups are the Naga of the Sagaing Division and the Danu,
Pa-oh, Palaung, Kokang and
>Wa of the Shan State.
>
>At previous sessions, the military-dominated convention ruled that persons
who have lived for long
>periods abroad or who are married to foreigners are banned from holding
high-level government
>positions.
>
>
>Asahi Evening News
>October 9, 2995
>
>FORMER DICTATOR ABSENT FROM CEREMONY
>
>The Associated Press
>
>RANGOON, Burma-More than 200 university students gathered at democracy
leader Aung San Suu
>Kyi's lakeside home Sunday to pay respects to elder statesmen, including
former dictator Ne Win and
>members of the current military government, whom they had invited to attend.
>
>Ne Win and his successors did not attend.
>
>Fifty-five out of 92 senior politicians did attend the traditional ceremony
to honor teachers, parents
>and elders on the holiday called "Thadingyut" which marks the end of
Buddhist Lent.
>
>Invitations signed by university students requested the invitees to attend
the ceremony at Suu Kyi's
>home "without fail." The 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner's name was not
mentioned in the invitation.
>
>         Maung Maung, a student representative, said that government
leaders had informed them that it was
>"too early to attend such a ceremony."
>
>The reclusive 84-year-old Gen.  Ne Win has rarely been seen in public since
he stepped down from
>power.  During his 26 years in office until 1988 he cut Burma off from the
rest of the world and
>transformed it from one of the richest countries in Southeast Asia into one
of the poorest in the world.
>
>In his final months of power, as well as shortly after he stepped down,
thousands of unarmed pro -
>democracy demonstrators were slaughtered by the military in the streets of
Rangoon and other major
>Burmese cities.
>
>Many Burmese believe Ne Win still controls the government, although
government leaders deny it.
>
>Since her release from six years of house arrest July 10, Suu Kyi has been
pressing the government for
>a dialogue on solving the nation's problems.
>
>Speaking at the ceremony, Bohmu Aung, a close friend of Aung San, Burma's
independence hero and
>Sun Kyi's father, said that national unity could be achieved through
negotiation.
>
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