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NEWS - Suu Kyi May Have to Pay Pric
Suu Kyi May Have to Pay Price for Latest Protest
Reuters
30-JUL-98
BANGKOK, July 30 (Reuters)- The Myanmar military could make
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi pay a high price for her
car
protest, diplomats and analysts said on Thursday.
Payment could be in the form of more restrictions on her
already
curbed movements, closer surveillance of her activities and
a tougher
line on her National League for Democracy (NLD) and its
supporters.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner was forcibly removed by the
military
from a car on Wednesday at a bridge in Anyarsu village on
the
outskirts Yangon and sent home, ending her six-day sit-in
protest.
She had been stopped from travelling to western Pathein
township on
Friday to meet party supporters and was ordered to return to
Yangon,
but she refused.
Her unique protest drew international condemnation of the
Myanmar
government by the United States and Japan, who slammed the
authorities abuse of her right to travel freely in her own
country.
While embarrassing the ruling State Peace and Development
Council
(SPDC), Suu Kyis protest also exposed flaws in the militarys
hitherto
iron-fisted handling of her and the opposition, analysts
said.
As a result of this latest protest, there is a probability
they could restrict
her movements further, said a Yangon-based diplomat. It has
done the
cause of reconciliation no good.
But other analysts said there was only a slim chance the
military would
throw Suu Kyi, who was released from six years of house
arrest in
mid-1995, back into detention.
She and the opposition have said she may be put back in
prison by
the authorities. But I doubt that will happen as the stakes
may be too
high for the government and its image if they did that, said
a
Bangkok-based analyst who declined to be named.
It appears as if the authorities were panicked by her car
protest and
their handling of the issue was a little messy this time, he
added.
The Alternative ASEAN Network, a rights group critical of
the military,
said Suu Kyi had made her point to the world that she could
not travel
freely in her own country.
This supported opposition claims that the military was
restricting
political activities and curbing human rights.
But more trouble lay in store for the government and the NLD
in the
immediate future because of two important dates: August 8
and
August 21.
August 8 is the 10th anniversary of a major student
pro-democracy
uprising in 1998 that the military crushed. August 21 is the
deadline
set by the NLD for the government to convene parliament with
the
winners of the May 1990 election, which the NLD swept but
the military
ignored.
The opposition and its allies abroad have predicted more
political
agitation in Myanmar at or around that time. Suu Kyi had
demanded
during her sit-in that jailed NLD members be freed and a
date be set
for a dialogue about reconciliation. But the governments
spokesman
said these were matters had yet to be addressed.
The pot is boiling in Myanmar. There are still those dates
and that
could lead to more standoffs and political hurdles, one
analyst said.
A senior government official said he could not say if Suu
Kyis
movements would be further restricted.
But there is always a saying, once bitten, twice shy, he
told Reuters.
We have to be very cautious about those two dates (August 8
and 21)
and ensure nobody rocks the boat.
The official said it would be quite difficult for the
government to
completely stop all agitation.
But there are limits in every country as to what people can
do, and they
can be dealt with according to the law of the country, he
said.
For the government, it is important that no party disrupts
the planned
August 18 reopening of institutions of higher learning,
closed after
widespread student unrest in December 1996.
More than 100,000 students are set to take their
examinations during
the planned reopening. The kids are their (oppositions) soft
target and
we want to make sure the institutions reopen, the official
said.