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BBC : Burmese democracy campaign co



Saturday, August 8, 1998 Published at 01:33 GMT 02:33 UK 

World: Asia-Pacific

Burmese democracy campaign continues 

The Burmese opposition leader has stressed her commitment to the campaign
to restore democracy in the country and says she will not be intimidated by
the military government. 

Aung San Suu Kyi was speaking on the eve of the 10th anniversary of a
bloody army crackdown on pro-democracy campaigners in Burma. 

Speaking from her National League for Democracy (NLD) headquarters in
Rangoon, she said: "I don't think there will be anybody in Burma who does
not remember what happened 10 years ago - painfully and with deep regret." 

Burmese opposition activists have been marking the eve of the anniversary
with protests to demand the government convene a parliament of members
elected at a poll in May 1990. 

The NLD won the poll by a big margin, but the result was ignored by the
military. 

"We are determined to do everything we can to make good our promise to the
people that we are going to bring democracy to Burma," Aung San Suu Kyi
said. 

She said the military government must understand "they cannot achieve
everything by force". 

"This is a day on which we should renew our resolve to work for democracy
and to build up the kind of system in which people by the thousands are not
shot down simply because they have asked for something they have a right to
demand," she said. 

Earier, the NLD rejected an invitation to meet senior government officials,
because, it said, the party leader was not allowed to be present. 

The military government refuses to meet Aung San Suu Kyi.