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Roadblock to stop trip by activist



South China Morning Post

Thursday  July 9  1998

Burma 
Roadblock to stop trip by activist condemned 



WILLIAM BARNES in Bangkok 
The Burmese government-in-exile yesterday vigorously condemned the junta
for a stand-off involving soldiers who stopped Aung San Suu Kyi when she
slipped her minders and tried to travel outside the capital.



On Tuesday night, the authorities put up a roadblock halfway to Min Hla,
150km north of Rangoon, where she had hoped to meet members of her National
League for Democracy who were elected to Parliament in 1990.



The incident showed that the junta was "without popular support and remains
in power through brute force and by avoiding the convening of Parliament",
the National Coalition of the Union of Burma said.



There was a tense stand-off for several hours when Ms Aung San Suu Kyi,
accompanied by the chairman of her National League for Democracy (NLD),
Aung Shwe, refused to leave her car or return to the capital. They returned
to her Rangoon home yesterday morning.



The junta said Ms Aung San Suu Kyi had been stopped "for her own safety and
to prevent her creating unrest".



US State Department spokesman James Rubin condemned the "apparent
abridgement" of her basic right "to visit whomsoever she likes".



The confrontation comes amid rising political tension following last
month's demand by the NLD for Parliament to be reconvened by August 21 in
line with the results of the 1990 election which it won but which the
military ignored.



The State Peace and Development Committee, the junta, accused the party at
the weekend of seeking a "head-on" collision with officials.



Tuesday's confrontation took place on the anniversary of the military's
massacre of student protesters in 1962.



The aim of Ms Aung San Suu Kyi's trip probably was to meet elected NLD
politicians who had recently been ordered by the authorities to sign
pledges restricting their movements.