Suu Kyi's Party Denounces Terroris

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Subject: Suu Kyi's Party Denounces  Terrorism



                         Suu Kyi's Party Denounces  Terrorism
         Monday, July 14, 1997; 3:30 a.m. EDT 

                         RANGOON, Burma (AP) -- The political party of Burmese
                         pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi denounced
terrorism
                         today and pledged to fight it. 

                         The party's statement comes less than a month after
the chief of
                         Burma's military intelligence accused the 1991
Nobel Peace
                         Prize-winner of accepting money from what he called
terrorist
                         groups. 

                         ``The National League for Democracy strongly
condemns any
                         act of terrorism. It will neither encourage nor
support terrorism
                         or will ever use such means,'' the statement said. 

                         ``We pledge to efface terrorism from our country
together with
                         the people.'' 

                         Suu Kyi and her party adhere to a philosophy of
nonviolence in
                         their campaign to bring democracy to Burma, which
has been
                         ruled by the military since 1962. 

                         In a June news conference, Gen. Khin Nyunt, head of
Burmese
                         military intelligence, accused Suu Kyi of accepting
$85,000
                         from representatives of American labor and
pro-democracy
                         groups funded by the U.S. government. 

                         Those groups, he claimed, were involved in plots to
bomb
                         embassies and the homes of government leaders in
Rangoon,
                         the Burmese capital. 

                         Suu Kyi has denied the charge. Washington has
denied that the
                         groups it funds are engaged in terrorist activities
and accuses
                         the Burmese government of trying to deflect
attention from its
                         human rights abuses. 

                         Although the statement from the National League for
                         Democracy, or NLD, was released today, it was dated
July
                         19, which will be the 50th anniversary of Martyr's
Day in
                         Burma. 

                         On that day in 1947, Suu Kyi's father, Burma's
independence
                         hero Aung San, and six of his Cabinet ministers were
                         assassinated by a political rival. 

                         Aung San advocated democracy for his country, but
his death
                         plunged Burma into a period of instability and
insurgencies that
                         culminated in the 1962 military coup. 

                         Suu Kyi repeatedly has called for a dialogue with
Burma's
                         military rulers since her release from six years of
house arrest in
                         July 1995. The generals have spurned her and
conducted mass
                         arrests of party members and supporters in an
attempt to break
                         the democracy movement.