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Doctors allowed to visit Suu Kyi in



Doctors allowed to visit Suu Kyi in seventh day of standoff


                              The Associated Press
                            08/18/98 8:20 AM Eastern

               YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- Myanmar's military
               government gave permission for opposition leader Aung San
               Suu Kyi's doctors to visit her today at the site of a political
               protest. 

               The government also sentenced two members of Suu Kyi's
               political party to seven years in jail for handing out
               pro-democracy leaflets -- the same offense for which 18
               foreigners were deported last week, an exiled students group
               said today. 

               Suu Kyi and three colleagues have been holed up in a van 19
               miles west of Yangon for seven days. They were stopped
               there by authorities last Wednesday while attempting to
               travel to the city of Bassein to meet members of her political
               party. 

               The 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner has tried to travel
               outside Yangon four times during the past two months and
               been stopped by the government at the same checkpoint each
               time. 

               A statement from Suu Kyi's political party, the National
               League for Democracy, said her two personal physicians
               would visit her today. 

               A government spokesman said this week Suu Kyi could not
               be allowed to travel to Bassein because of threats against
               her life. 

               Suu Kyi is popular with the people of Myanmar, also known
               as Burma, but the regime does not allow her to make public
               appearances. The only physical attack on Suu Kyi took place
               in November 1996 by a mob whose members said they were
               paid by the government. 

               In speeches reported in today's state-run New Light of
               Myanmar, three generals in the ruling military council urged
               government workers to annihilate Suu Kyi and her
               colleagues. 

               Meanwhile, the All Burma Students Democratic Front, an
               exiled students group, said two NLD members, Kyi Toe and
               Aung Than Nyunt, were sentenced last Thursday for
               distributing leaflets containing a message from their party. 

               The fate of nine other NLD members were also arrested was
               unknown, the group said. 


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