AP: Two Reports from Rangoon

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REPORT #1  
 By AYE AYE WIN
 Associated Press Writer

   RANGOON, Burma (AP) -- Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi said
Wednesday it was "quite possible" that she could be arrested again, as the
military regime she has been fighting for years jailed scores of her
supporters.
   "You know how it is with these dictatorial governments," said Suu Kyi, a
Nobel Peace Prize laureate freed last July after six years of house arrest.
"If you're part of the movement for democracy in Burma, imprisonment is
simply an occupational hazard."
   She made the comments in an interview with Voice of America radio.
   At least 90 people have been detained since the nationwide roundup
started Monday and more arrests were expected, her opposition group said.
The junta's crackdown came ahead of the largest meeting of pro-democracy
activists in years, scheduled to begin Sunday at Suu Kyi's house.
   The three-day gathering was to bring together for the first time
surviving candidates from Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, who won
392 of 485 seats in democratic elections in 1990 that the junta refused to
honor. Many of the candidates have been killed, jailed or driven into
exile.
   The meeting, which coincides with the sixth anniversary of the election,
is seen as a symbolic challenge to the junta's legitimacy.
   The junta, formally known as the State Law and Order Restoration
Council, or SLORC, has hobbled Suu Kyi's efforts to rally support since
freeing her.
   Winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for her non-violent promotion of
democracy, the charismatic Suu Kyi has said her supporters will not provoke
a repeat of 1988, when troops killed hundreds of pro-democracy
demonstrators.
   Still, Suu Kyi said the meeting would go ahead despite the arrests.
   "For the long term, we think everything is working in our favor because
all this is tantamount to the SLORC admitting that they cannot cope with
the situation," Suu Kyi told VOA.
   "They keep on saying, `Oh, these people don't matter, the elections were
six years ago, and yet it seems as though these people matter very much
indeed," she said.
   Her spokesman, Aye Win, said except for the party's top 10 leaders, all
of its representatives in Rangoon who were to attend the meeting had been
taken into custody by Wednesday. Among them was Suu Kyi's personal
assistant, Win Htein.
   Asked if authorities appeared intent on rounding up the 200 to 300
people originally expected, Aye Win said: "We think so."
   Meanwhile, on a trip to Japan, Burmese Foreign Minister Ohn Gyaw gave
the junta's first public reaction, telling a Japanese official Wednesday
that reports of the arrests were "fabricated."
   Ohn Gyaw also said the reporters have not praised the regime for
allowing Suu Kyi to stage weekly rallies in front of her home, but "react
right away when someone was reported to have been arrested."
   The rallies, which attract about 2,000 people, are the only contact with
ordinary Burmese the junta allows Suu Kyi. Burma's state-controlled news
media does not report her remarks, but tapes of her speeches circulate
surreptitiously around the country.
   Burma has been ruled by the military since 1962. Suu Kyi, daughter of
independence hero Aung San, emerged as the country's top pro-democracy
leader during the 1988 demonstrations.
   The current regime has opened Burma's economy to foreign investment,
long shunned by previous regimes, but has stifled political dissent.
=======

REPORT #2

   By AYE AYE WIN
 Associated Press Writer
   RANGOON, Burma (AP) -- Ignoring international protests, Burma's military
regime arrested more supporters of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi today
in its push to block a pro-democracy meeting.
   The junta has detained at least 90 people since Monday, including Suu
Kyi's personal assistant, Win Htein. Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel
Peace Prize, remains free, but she told Voice of America radio today that
it was "quite possible" she might be arrested as well.
   "You know how it is with these dictatorial governments," said Suu Kyi,
who spent six years under house arrest.
   Despite the arrests of Suu Kyi's supporters, the three-day meeting of
opposition leaders will begin as planned Sunday at her home in Rangoon,
another opposition spokesman, Aye Win, said.
   The meeting is to be the most important gathering of the military
regime's opponents since Suu Kyi was released from house arrest in July.
   It is meant as a symbolic attack on the legitimacy of the junta, which
refused to honor democratic elections in 1990. Suu Kyi's National League
for Democracy won the vote by a landslide, but the military regime -- known
as the State Law and Order Restoration Council, or SLORC -- never allowed
Parliament to convene.
   "In the short term, of course, there will be fewer people at the
conference than there otherwise might have been," Suu Kyi told VOA. "As for
the long term, we think everything is working in our favor because this is
tantamount to the SLORC admitting that they cannot cope with the
situation."
   In the interview with VOA, Suu Kyi refused to speculate how long her
supporters might remain in custody.
   "If you're part of the movement for democracy in Burma, imprisonment is
simply an occupational hazard," she said.
   None of the 10 top leaders in Suu Kyi's party has been detained, but Aye
Win said he expects more arrests.
   The government gave no reason for the arrests, and it was unclear where
the detainees were being held.
   State-controlled news media carried no word of the arrests, although
many Burmese heard about the detentions on foreign radio. Rangoon's streets
were quiet today.
   The meeting, on the sixth anniversary of the election, brings together
elected league members who have not been killed, arrested or driven into
exile.
   On Tuesday, Washington urged countries in the region to use their
influence on the junta to help democracy supporters in Burma, also known as
Myanmar.
   The arrests were "yet another in a series of oppressive actions by the
military regime" to block democracy, State Department spokesman Nicholas
Burns said in Washington.
   London-based Amnesty International said it fears the detainees may face
torture.
   The arrests and the junta's harsh rhetoric against Suu Kyi and her
supporters suggest the regime "has decided to pull out all stops against
the opposition," said Sidney Jones, director of the New York-based Human
Rights Watch/Asia.
   Attacks in Burma's press this week likened Suu Kyi to a viper.
   
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