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Daw Suu's Letter from Burma No. 32



Mainichi Daily News, Monday, July 1, 1996

NLD conference sparks threats from SLORC

"A dissident's life 2"

Letter from Burma # 32 by Aung San Suu Kyi


	In Burma, one should approach the telephone with a prayer on the lips and a
determination to try, try and try again.  Getting through to the required
number at the first attempt is such an event to greet with incredulity and
an expression of thanks to all powers, seen and unseen.  The post office is
no more reliable then the telephone system.  I cannot quite make up my mind
whether so many letters addressed to me fail to arrive because of the
inefficiency of the post office or because of the efficiency of the Military
Intelligence.  My dear Japanese teacher Michiko-san sent me a little note
through somebody who came to Rangoon to let me know she has been writing to
me regularly through the post.  None of those letters have reached me.
Other friends also send messages to tell me they have written but their
letters have not arrived either.  Lately, the authorities have even
prohibited courier services from delivering magazines and papers addressed
to me.
	With such unreliable communications services, inviting people from all over
Burma to an NLD conference in Rangoon is not something that can be done with
ease by a secretary sitting at a desk.  It requires time and organization.
It was therefore not  surprising that some of our elected representatives
found security personnel on their doorstep before they had even received
invitations to the conference.  The representatives were asked if they
intended to attend the conference and when they answered "yes" they were
whisked off into detention.
During the week before the conference was scheduled to take place, nearly
300 elected representatives were arrested.  In the face of the protests of
the NLD and an international outcry, SLORC claimed that the representatives
had merely been taken in for questioning and would be released shortly.
This statement was partly correct: our representatives were certainly
questioned.  There were variations in the questions asked from one part of
the country to the other but there were some which come up everywhere: Why
was the NLD holding this conference?  Was the party going to set up a
parallel government?  How did the representatives assess the current
political situation?  What were their political beliefs?  How did they think
the situation had changed since my release from house arrest?  What was
their opinion of SLORC?  What did they think of its aims and achievements?
Did they think dialogue was possible between the NLD and SLORC?  What did
they think were the chances of success for such a dialogue?
	It seemed to us that the authorities were unnecessarily nervous about the
idea of the NLD carrying out its routine works as a political organization.
We saw no reason why a conference of some 300 people should be viewed as an
event which would create chaos and throw the country into confusion.  We
decided to adapt plans to accord with the situation.  As the great majority
of our elected representatives were in detention we decided that we would
expand the conference to a congress, the first of a series which would lay
down a future work program for our party.
In addition to our elected representatives, the authorities had also taken
into custody a number of party workers and members of my office staff.
Other party workers rallied around to fill the gaps that had been left and
preparations for the congress proceeded in an atmosphere that was a cross
between a crusade and a carnival, with everybody determined to keep faith
with those who had been arrested by making a success of the occasion.  The
people also rallied around to demonstrate their solidarity.  On the weekend
of the congress our usual public meetings outside my house were attended by
record numbers of supporters in spite of the inclement weather.
The three days of the congress went by quickly, leaving us all exhausted but
thoroughly satisfied with what had been accomplished in the face of so much
harassment and intimidation.  But it was of course not the end of the story.
A few days after the congress was over the authorities started releasing
those who had been arrested.  We then learned that there had been a
systematic campaign to try to make our elected representatives relinquish
their status as members of Parliament and to give up their membership in our
party.  To some it was merely suggested that such steps would be desirable
but there were cases where pressure was exerted.  There were threats of
prison sentences, loss of business opportunities, evictions from state-owned
apartments, dismissal from their jobs of family members who belonged to the
civil service.
NLD workers are often "reminded" of the possible consequences of continued
involvement in politics.  In the middle of the night there could be a
pounding on the door that signals arrest.  Members of the security forces
could be lying in wait at a dark corner of a market place, ready to pounce.
Life is certainly not dull for dissidents in Burma.