The Junta Takes Precautions on Suu

[kyawkyaw@xxxxxxx]

Myanmar takes precautions on Suu Kyi security 
06:03 a.m. Jul 14, 1998 Eastern 
By Sutin Wannabovorn 
BANGKOK, July 14 (Reuters) - Myanmar's military junta is taking steps to
boost security for opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to avoid blame if she
is harmed, its officials said on Tuesday. 
``If she (Suu Kyi) gets shot then somebody will put the blame on the
government, would they not? When (Moshood) Abiola died everybody put the
blame on the Nigerian government,'' said a visiting government official who
declined to be identified. 
``So we have imposed preventive measures on her security, for state security
and for everything,'' he told Reuters in Bangkok. 
The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) on Sunday said it feared
unidentified anti-government elements might use rising political tensions
between the government and the Suu Kyi-led National League for Democracy
(NLD) to harm the opposition leader. 
The tensions escalated after Suu Kyi demanded the SPDC convene parliament by
August 21 with elected representatives from a May 1990 election, which the
NLD swept but the military ignored. 
The military also said it had increased surveillance of NLD MPs to prevent
them from upsetting plans to reopen institutions of higher learning that
were closed in December 1996 after student unrest. 
Rumours have also circulated of possible violence or political unrest ahead
of the July 19 Martyrs' Day and August 8 anniversary of the 1988
pro-democracy student uprising that was crushed by the military. 
Martyrs' Day commemorates the assassination on July 19, 1947, of Suu Kyi's
father, the architect of the country's independence from British rule. 
Myanmar's Information Minister, Major-General Kyi Aung, who led the
delegation to a five-day ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations)
Information Ministers' meeting which ended here on Tuesday, denied news
reports that the SPDC was harassing and detaining opposition members. 
``It is not true. They have tongues, so they can speak anything. Instead, we
are even more relaxed on her,'' he said. 
``Yes, some people were arrested for wrongdoings but we don't have political
prisoners in our country,'' Kyi Aung said. 
The opposition claims that the junta holds hundreds of political prisoners in
its jails and is abusing human rights. 
The minister said Myanmar planned to relax its Communication Act to allow
more access in the country to the Internet and the use of computer modems.
``It will be possible to use Internet and modems to file stories from
Myanmar in the near future,'' Kyi Aung said. 

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