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AP: SLORC Handed Another Victory to



Subject: AP: SLORC Handed Another Victory to Suu Kyi

 SLORC Handed Another  Victory to Suu Kyi
   
By ROBERT HORN
 Associated Press Writer
   RANGOON, Burma (AP) -- By jailing scores of her followers this week,
Burma's military regime may have handed a victory to pro-democracy leader
Aung San Suu Kyi in her war of nerves with the generals.
   The junta blocked full attendance at a major opposition meeting this
weekend at Suu Kyi's house by the straightforward method of arresting 217
organizers and delegates, who are working to end the military's 34-year
rule.
   Although successful in its aim, the roundup has brought threats from the
United States and Japan to cut trade with Burma, which avidly courts
foreign investment. The arrests again focused world attention on Suu Kyi's
peaceful pro-democracy efforts, for which she won the 1991 Nobel Peace
Prize.
   It's just the kind of attention Burma doesn't want, said Rutgers
University professor emeritus Josef Silverstein, who has studied Burma for
four decades.
   "All the things that the Burmese military would like to keep under the
rug to give this illusion that things are so great -- suddenly everyone is
talking about them," Silverstein said in a telephone interview.
   "The arrests have very much helped our cause, but I'm afraid it has not
been easy for those who have been arrested," Suu Kyi said today in an
interview with The Associated Press.
   Though she remains free -- for now -- Suu Kyi is largely powerless.
   Daughter of assassinated Burmese independence leader Aung San, Suu Kyi
spent six years under house arrest until the military released her in July.
The regime told her then that no restrictions would be placed on her
activities.
   But it has boxed in the charismatic woman known simply as "The Lady" by
preventing her in every way possible from going out to meet the public.
   She seldom goes far from the ramshackle lakeside compound where she
spent the six years in confinement. Any time a trip even hints of politics
-- like visiting Rangoon's most sacred pagoda on a national holiday -- she
finds soldiers blocking the road or the train she is supposed to take
canceled.
   The junta opens a small window of opportunity each week by allowing
gatherings in which up to 2,000 supporters come to her house to hear her
speak. Suu Kyi avoids confrontation on these occasions, but the poise and
courage she showed in staring down armed soldiers eight years ago still
come through.
   Unfortunately for Suu Kyi, her charisma doesn't seem to affect the
military council, known by its acronym SLORC.
   In 1988, the military regime gunned down hundreds of pro-democracy
supporters in Rangoon. In 1990, the regime allowed democratic elections,
but ignored the results when Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy
captured 392 of 485 contested seats.
   Suu Kyi called the opposition meeting to assemble the surviving winning
candidates from those elections.
   The new SLORC is more skilled at repression and smarter at gauging how
far it can go. So it permits Suu Kyi her freedom -- at least in name -- to
appease governments and businesses eager to do business with Burma but
concerned about their reputations.
   Under Gen. Than Shwe, who became SLORC chairman in 1992, the generals
have shown a new pragmatism -- arresting party members and supporters in an
effort to destroy Suu Kyi's support. With Burmese afraid to associate
openly with her, the generals can declare she has no support, eventually
eroding her stature abroad.
   Meanwhile, the regime finds new business partners.
   While the U.S. State Department was deploring the arrests this week,
Roger Truitt, president of Atlantic Richfield Co., was pictured Friday in
state-run newspapers negotiating deals with Gen. Khin Nyunt, head of the
secret police.
   Shown with them was SLORC member Gen. Maung Aye -- who threatened last
week to "annihilate" Suu Kyi.
   Such threats force Burmese into silence.
   Shortly after Suu Kyi's release, hotel clerks crowded around visiting
journalists to hear tapes of interviews with her. But by last November, a
clerk asked to translate a Suu Kyi speech refused, saying she feared jail.
   Suu Kyi believes Burma's economy -- once the richest in Southeast Asia
-- will falter under the generals' management. Inflation runs at 35
percent, and a steady worsening, she believes, will eventually spark new
resistance to the regime. Others are not so sure.
   "We may never get democracy," said Khin Thein, an accountant. "But the
people will always love Aung San Suu Kyi. She has already sacrificed so
much for us."
KT
ISBDA