Reuter: Beyond Crackdown

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 Beyond Crackdown

    RANGOON, June 14 (Reuter) - Two more elected members of Aung San Suu
Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) have resigned bringing the total
number to leave the party in recent days to 10, Burma's state-run media
reported on Friday.
     The media said the two, both of whom won seats in a May 1990 election,
had asked to step down, one for health reasons and the other because he no
longer wanted to be involved in party politics.
     The country's official election commission, which organised the 1990
poll, agreed to their requests and let them resign as
representatives-elect, the media reported.
     The NLD won 392 of the 485 seats contested in the 1990 election but
the ruling military body, the State Law and Order Restoration Council
(SLORC) did not recognise the result.
     The 10 recent resignations from the NLD follow a May crackdown in
which more than 250 party supporters, most of whom won seats in the 1990
poll, were detained in the run up to a May 26-28 party congress at Suu
Kyi's Rangoon house.
     Authorities released most of the politicians after about 10 days.
     Suu Kyi said afterwards some of those detained had been forced to sign
statements promising to quit the party.
     Opposition sources also said some NLD members were considering
stepping down due to concern about the rising tension between the party and
the government.
     State-run newspapers also reported that 22 anti-government guerrillas
surrendered in May, 10 of them from an autonomy seeking Karen minority
force and 12 from an allied pro-democracy group whose members are mostly
drawn from the majority Burman community.
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