One day Burma will be achieved demo

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Subject: One day Burma will be achieved democracy

                               The Vancouver Sun

                     March  1, 1997, Saturday, FINAL EDITION

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A11



HEADLINE:  Burma's  rebel predicts final triumph : The woman who won the Nobel
Peace Prize says one day her nation will achieve democracy.

BYLINE: NORMAN WEBSTER; MONTRAL GAZETTE

DATELINE: RANGOON

 BODY:
    Asking about Aung San Suu Kyi in  Burma  is like mentioning the Dalai Lama
in Tibet. People duck their heads, look around warily, then grin and acknowledge
that, of course, she has their hearts. 
   "Ninety per cent of the people are with her," one Burmese said quietly. That 
would be a tad higher than the only clearly recorded survey of her popularity,
the general election of 1990.

   In that vote, despite the fact that she was under house arrest at the time,
Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won 392 of the 485 seats 
being contested -- 81 per cent.

   It was a stunning repudiation of the brutal military regime -- named the
State Law and Order Restoration Council -- that, in one form or another, has
held this country of 50 million people under dictatorship since 1962.

   The generals reacted predictably -- refusing to recognize the election result
and cracking down viciously on the NLD. The hope was that the world would forget
Aung San Suu Kyi.

   Wrong again. In 1991, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize but continued
under house arrest until 1995.

   For the next year she conducted a kind of street theatre outside her Rangoon 
home. Each Saturday and Sunday at 4 p.m., she would emerge to address Burmese in
their thousands, answering their questions and laughing and joking with them. 
The public meetings ended last year when the SLORC blocked off Aung San Suu
Kyi's street and began a new crackdown.

   Today, she is not under house arrest, but nor is she free. She must, "for her
own protection," apply to leave her compound, and there is effectively nowhere
she can go except out of  Burma  -- which she refuses to do, for she would never
get back.

   Seeing Aung San Suu Kyi takes a bit of doing, but you can get her telephone
number and call for an appointment. Then you have to pass through the official
security barrier, where they take down your details and decide whether to let
you through. Not everyone makes it.

   One recent morning, my wife and I walked along a deserted street to a
two-storey white villa badly in need of a paint job and sat down to tea with one
of the more intelligent, articulate and courageous politicians on the planet.

   At 51, she is as strikingly beautiful as her photographs, but there is both a
serenity and a steel to her that no camera can convey. This is a born leader who
would hold her own anywhere. 
   In condemning the generals, she cites examples of sheer brutality (forcing
prisoners to act as human mine-sweepers) and supreme pettiness (preventing
ethnic dancers from performing for the NLD).

   Eventually, there must be some accommodation between the two bitter
opponents. Has the SLORC made any overtures?

   Nothing serious, she says. But eventually they will have to end up at the
bargaining table. The sooner they do the easier things will be. "Even wars
finally end by people sitting down and talking over ways to clean up the mess." 

   Is there anyone who might bring the junta to the table? "SLORC is very much a
closed society, but I can't think they all think the same way. I have to think
there are still some SLORC members who have not lost their consciences."

   She refuses to accept that right will not triumph. "Sometimes, 24 hours can
bring a total revolutionary change."

   She uses the un-Burmese image of a frozen lake. "I think this is the case in 
the great majority of authoritarian states: on the surface, because of
repression, everything seems frozen, but when the sun comes out and the ice
melts, you find that there was a lot of life underneath all along." 
   That is what she sees beneath the ice in  Burma.  In one of the poorest
countries in the world, the gap between rich and poor is growing. The education 
system is decaying. The junta has shown no reluctance to mow people down with
machine guns when necessary.

   Does she ever get discouraged?

   "What is there to be discouraged about? Gandhi said the victory is in the
struggle itself. The struggle itself is the most important thing. I tell our
followers that when we achieve democracy, we will look back with nostalgia on
the struggle and how pure we were.

   "We will prevail because our cause is right, because our cause is just. ...
History is on our side. Time is on our side."

   Magnificent. If only.

GRAPHIC: Photo: Associated Press / SEES VICTORY IN STRUGGLE: Burmese opposition 
leader Aung San Suu Kyi smiles while meeting with a small group of foreign
journalists in Rangoon. 
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

LOAD-DATE: March 3, 1997