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REUTER: SUU KYI SPEAKS THOUSANDS DE



Subject: REUTER: SUU KYI SPEAKS THOUSANDS DESPITE HARSH OPPRESSION

SUU KYI SPEAKS THOUSANDS DESPITE HARSH OPPRESSION
 
    RANGOON, June 8 (Reuter) - Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi
on Saturday defied tough new laws muzzling opposition parties and spoke to
thousands of supporters gathered on the street outside her residence.
     Suu Kyi gave her regular speech just a day after the military
government passed a sweeping new law, which appeared to be aimed directly
at her party, prohibiting anyone from saying or doing anything considered
contrary to the government's plans to write a new constitution.
     In her speech Suu Kyi avoided criticising the ruling State Law and
Order Restoration Council (SLORC) which said in its law enacted on Friday
it would arrest people and outlaw parties which disrupted the stability and
peace of the nation.
     "We never said a word to undermine the stability of the state," Suu
Kyi told a crowd of about 4,000 people, apparently referring to the new
law. She did not comment further on the new ruling but said she would once
the party had discussed it.
     The gathering went on as it has over the past few weeks, with no
arrests or attempts by authorities to prevent it. The one difference was
the absence of traffic police and barricades used over the past few months
to keep the crowds from spilling out onto busy University Avenue.
     Tensions between the SLORC and Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy
(NLD) party have been rising since May, when the government arrested more
than 250 NLD politicians in an attempt to block the NLD from holding its
first congress since Suu Kyi's release last July from six years of house
arrest.
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