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Myanmar Junta Stops Suu Kyi's Trip



                                       Myanmar junta stops Suu Kyi's trip to
township 
                                 02:39 p.m Jul 07, 1998 Eastern 

                                 YANGON, July 7 (Reuters) - Myanmar's
military junta said on Tuesday
                                 it had stopped opposition leader Aung San
Suu Kyi from proceeding on a
                                 planned trip to a northern township for her
own security and to prevent her
                                 from creating political unrest. 

                                 A government statement obtained by Reuters
said local security officials at
                                 Shwe Mya Yar village, about 80 km (50
miles) north of Yangon, had on
                                 Tuesday morning stopped Suu Kyi and three
others travelling with her in a
                                 car without her security team. 

                                 After questioning, Suu Kyi, the secretary
general of the opposition National
                                 League for Democracy (NLD) party, its
chairman Aung Shwe, elected
                                 NLD representative Maung Aye and her driver
were denied permission to
                                 proceed as they had planned to Min Hla
township, about 150 km (92 miles)
                                 away, it added. 

                                 ``The local security officials noticing the
absence of Mrs Aris' (Suu Kyi)
                                 security team on this trip made an enquiry
and requested U Aung Shwe and
                                 Mrs Aris not to proceed with their planned
trip to Min Hla township,'' the
                                 statement from the ruling State Peace and
Development Council said. 

                                 They were later requested to return to the
capital. 

                                 The government said they had been stopped
on ``grounds of security and
                                 prevention as well as the making of
unnecessary political agitation and
                                 activities intending to create a head-on
collision and confrontation with
                                 relevant authorities in an attempt to bring
about social unrest and political
                                 disturbances.'' 

                                 Suu Kyi, the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize winner,
and her companions on the
                                 abortive trip were not available for
comment as telephone calls to them went
                                 unanswered. 

                                 It was not known if Suu Kyi and her party
had returned to Yangon, but an
                                 NLD source said that they had waited where
they had been stopped until
                                 Tuesday afternoon in the hope that they
could proceed with the journey. 

                                 The source said they had gone on the trip
to meet local NLD officials whose
                                 movements have been restricted by the junta. 

                                 The SPDC on Sunday said that it had
restricted movements of NLD
                                 representatives in townships to prevent
them from causing unrest ahead of
                                 the planned opening of some closed
institutions of higher learning some time
                                 next month. 

                                 The institutions were closed in December
1996 after student protests against
                                 the military government. 

                                 The government statement said that July 7
was annually observed by
                                 anti-government groups as the day of
political agitation against the
                                 government as that was the day in 1962 when
student unrest had taken
                                 place in Yangon. 

                                 ``It is regretful that the NLD leadership
has deliberately chosen the occasion
                                 to create unnecessary and unwanted
confusion, confrontation and collision
                                 and to thereby threaten the disruption of
prevailing peace, tranquillity and
                                 stability at any cost,'' it added. 

                                 ``At the same time, fabrication and
disinformation campaigns have been
                                 carried out through the media and some
embassies in Yangon to mislead the
                                 world into thinking that an internal
revolution and ethnic uprising are
                                 imminently brewing in Myanmar,'' it said. 

                                 Suu Kyi, who was freed from six years of
house arrest in mid-1995, and the
                                 SPDC have been on a collision course since
late May, after she demanded
                                 that the government convene parliament --
comprising members elected in
                                 the aborted May 1990 election -- by August 21. 

                                 The NLD swept the 1990 poll but its
landslide victory was ignored by the
                                 ruling military. 

                                 The SPDC has flatly refused to convene
parliament and said instead that any
                                 parliament would have to be based on a new
national constitution being
                                 drafted by a government-appointed National
Convention. The convention
                                 has met since 1993 but failed to complete
its task so far. 

                                 The military also threatened to take legal
action against Suu Kyi and her
                                 party for making statements that may hinder
the work of the convention.