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Reuter: Martyr's Day More Than a C



Subject: Reuter:  Martyr's Day More Than a Commemoration in Burma 

Martyr's Day More Than a Commemoration in Burma 

   By Apichart Weerawong
     RANGOON, July 14 (Reuter) - Burma marks Martyr's Day this week and it
is being seen as a key test in shaky relations between the country's
military rulers and the opposition, led by Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San
Suu Kyi.
     Many were waiting to see if Suu Kyi would hold an alternative ceremony
to mark the national mourning day to mark the July 19, 1947 assassination
of her father, independence hero General Aung San, and eight others who
were killed as they planned for the handover of an independent Burma from
Britain.
     Suu Kyi, who participated in the military government's official
ceremony last year only days after being released from six years of house
arrest, has not said if she will attend this year's function or stage a
separate one.
     On Saturday she said formal ceremonies were not necessary to honour
the country's national heroes.
     "In my opinion, we honour our dead leaders, not by holding formal
ceremonies, but by doing what they would have wished us to do," Suu Kyi
told a gathering at her front gates which has become a weekly weekend
feature.
     Government officials would not say if Suu Kyi had been invited to
participate in this year's ceremony. Traditionally, the children or
relatives of all the assassinated "martyrs" are invited to lay a wreath at
the Martyrs' Mausoleum.
     Last year Suu Kyi made a subdued appearance at the ceremony and
quietly placed baskets of flowers at the mausoleum that commemorates her
father and six of his ministers, a secretary and bodyguard who were slain
as they held a cabinet meeting.
     In the year since then Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy
(NLD) party have been in a war of words with the ruling State Law and Order
Restoration Council (SLORC).
     Last week, Suu Kyi defiantly vowed to go ahead with the party's plan
to draft a new constitution despite a sweeping new law introduced by the
SLORC last month forbidding such a move.
     Suu Kyi told Reuters in an interview last week the NLD had instructed
her and other party leaders to draft an alternative charter to the one
being drawn up by a military-appointed convention.
     "The party congress gave us the responsibility of drawing up a draft
constitution and we will go ahead with that," she said.
     The government-appointed convention has been meeting since January
1993 to draft guidelines of a pro-military charter. Suu Kyi angered the
SLORC in November when she pulled the NLD out of the talks, saying they did
not represent the will of the people.
     Over the past few months the SLORC has cracked down on the NLD with
arrests and regular criticism of the party and Suu Kyi in the official
media and at government-sponsored mass rallies.
     Its new law, passed just after the NLD's May party congress, also
prohibits anyone from doing anything seen likely to disrupt national unity
or the constitutional process.
     Diplomats and observers said they were watching to see if Suu Kyi
would hold any sort of alternative Martyrs' Day ceremony this year, which
could be seen as a direct affront to the SLORC.
     "We are just waiting to see what she does. That's all we can do here
is wait," said one Rangoon resident.
     The events of Martyrs' Day six years ago appeared to be the impetus
behind Suu Kyi's arrest on July 20, 1989.
     Instead of laying a wreath that day, Suu Kyi, who had criticised the
military and said she doubted they would ever keep their promise of
transferring power to a civilian government, and the NLD had planned a
march to pay tribute to the martyrs.
     After authorities quickly filled the streets with troops, Suu Kyi
called off the march because she feared bloodshed. The next day she was
placed under house arrest.
  REUTER
KT
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