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Myanmar opposition leader Suu Kyi u (r)



BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) _ Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San
Suu Kyi was apparently unhurt Friday after getting caught in a
scuffle between police and supporters outside her home,
sources said.

Diplomats and opposition figures in exile reported that Suu Kyi,
winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for her opposition to
Myanmar's military regime, was believed to have fallen in
the melee.

The confrontation erupted Thursday when police barred 30 to
50 youth members of her National League for Democracy from
entering her home in Yangon, Myanmar's capital, for a
regularly scheduled study session. Suu Kyi, 53, and her
No. 2, Tin Oo, afterward spent the night with them in
the street in a ``sit-in demonstration'' in monsoon rains
until 9 a.m.

Friday, when they went into her compound, the government
said in a statement. Police stood nearby. A spokesman for
the U.S. Embassy in Yangon said: ``We understand that nobody
has been allowed in or out of her compound since this morning,
and that security has been increased.''

Western diplomats said the scuffle broke out as Suu Kyi
tried to escort the youths past police lines into her home,
and many had heard that Suu Kyi had fallen but was unhurt.
An exile opposition group, the National Coalition Government
of the Union of Burma, said it was believed Suu Kyi had
been pushed to the ground and that police had used abusive
language with her.

Neither Suu Kyi nor other leaders of her party could be
contacted. Suu Kyi has said that the government often cuts
her phone line and a call to one of her colleagues was
abruptly cut off after several seconds. The incident would
be the first time since 1996 that Suu Kyi has been placed
in physical danger, though the government has severely
curtailed her activities.

In November 1996, a pro-government mob attacked Suu Kyi's
motorcade with sticks and crowbars. Some afterward said
they had been paid by the government to attack the car.
The statement from the exile group, as well as secondhand
accounts from witnesses, said the youths trying to enter
Suu Kyi's home Thursday were attacked by people in
civilian clothing.

The government has tolerated study sessions by NLD youths
at Suu Kyi's home for months, though she cannot meet such
large gatherings of people outside her compound.
The party, in an unusually confrontational statement,
demanded Tuesday that the regime convene by Aug. 21
the pro-democracy Parliament elected in 1990 but never
allowed to meet.

The military has ruled Myanmar, also known as Burma,
since 1962. The regime refused to honor the election result
when it became clear that pro-military parties lost.
Suu Kyi, who vaulted to prominence during anti-government
protests in 1988 that were bloodily suppressed, has been
under house arrest or close confinement for most of the
last nine years. Hundreds of her supporters are in jail.

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