Myanmar Opposition Leader Blocked (r)

[RANGOONP@xxxxxxx]

Myanmar Opposition Leader Blocked

 .c The Associated Press 

YANGON, Myanmar ( July 26-AP) - Hopes for an end Sunday to a highway standoff
between Aung San Suu Kyi and Myanmar's military government evaporated with the
Nobel laureate preparing to spend a third night in her car. 

``She is free to return to Yangon anytime, but she cannot proceed to her
destination,'' a military officer who accompanied reporters to the scene said
on condition of anonymity. 

Suu Kyi was stopped Friday morning 32 miles west of the capital while driving
to Bassein, 100 miles west of Yangon, to meet members of her political party. 

Suu Kyi has been traveling to tell party members not to obey a military order
to report to authorities twice a day under the ``Habitual Offenders Act,'' a
law reserved for those considered heinous criminals by the government. 

In her battle to bring democracy to Myanmar, also known as Burma, Suu Kyi has
tried three times in recent weeks to break away from her military security
detail and drive out to the provinces to meet supporters. She has been stopped
by the government each time. 

On Sunday, Suu Kyi's vehicle was parked on a wooden bridge off the main road.
A group of local authorities, plainclothes security personnel and an ambulance
stood by. 

The government said Suu Kyi ``has been free to generally move about and
agitate against the government as she ever has. But of course, there are
limits, just as there are anywhere, as to how much unrest a person or an
organization may stir up.'' 

Tin Oo, vice chairman of the National League for Democracy, of which Suu Kyi
is general secretary, said he thought the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner would
return home if the military would let her party members come to Yangon. 

During trips July 7 and 20, the military brought people she was attempting to
see to her car. 

Officials have cited no law that Suu Kyi is breaking by traveling outside the
capital to meet members of her party, which is a legal organization in
Myanmar.