BBC-Suu Kyi sits tight

[hlaing@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Sunday, August 16, 1998 Published at 17:19 GMT 18:19 UK 

Suu Kyi sits tight 

The Burmese opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, is spending a fifth day at
a roadblock outside the capital, Rangoon, where the authorities are
preventing her from travelling on to meet her supporters. 

Diplomatic sources in Rangoon say the authorities have towed her vehicle to
the same bridge where she spent six days in a similar stand-off last month.


The sources say Miss Suu Kyi and her three companions are believed to be in
good health. 

Political stand-off

Together with her companions, Miss Suu Kyi was on her way to Pathein
township when their grey minibus was stopped. 

Diplomats say the latest stand-off is designed to focus world attention on
her deadline of August 21 as the date by which the government should
convene the parliament that was elected in 1990. 

Miss Suu Kyi's National League of Democracy Party won that election by an
overwhelming majority, but the military junta ignored the result. 

Instead, it jailed dozens of NLD members on political charges, and sent
others fleeing into exile. 

Four times in the past two months, government authorities have blocked Miss
Suu Kyi's way as she has tried to travel to the countryside to meet her
would-be members of parliament. 

But despite international criticism, the military government has ridiculed
the NLD's ultimatum and the group's latest roadside protest, sending them
gifts and promising "every effort to ensure their comfort and safety".