SCMP-Junta targets student party as

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South China Morning Post
Saturday  September 12  1998

Junta targets student party as arrest sweep continues 

WILLIAM BARNES in Bangkok 
The junta, in what appears to be a clean sweep of potential troublemakers,
has arrested more than 100 people associated with a student political
party, according to party officials.

The focus of world attention has been on the fate of members of opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD).

The party reported this week that more than 300 of its would-be MPs and
supporters had been detained following Ms Aung San Suu Kyi's threat to
convene parliament this month.

But the Democratic Party for New Society said yesterday that many of its
own members and former members had been arrested in round-ups led by
Burmese military intelligence.

The party's chairman, Aung Moe Zaw, said that some of those arrested had
already served time in prison and had washed their hands of politics. "We
want the military to know that the Junta's problems will not be solved by
putting everyone behind bars - it will only escalate tension and resentment
among the people," Mr Aung Moe Zaw said.

The party was formed in 1988 when former student protesters decided they
needed the legal cover of a political party to travel and organise
opposition to military rule.

The party fielded the minimum three candidates in that election but urged
voters to support Ms Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD.

The party was officially banned after the election but now it is "above
ground" its officials operate along the Thai-Burma border. Many of its
members were given long jail terms.

Meanwhile, the second demonstration this week by schoolchildren against
military rule was held in Rangoon yesterday, said the All Burma Students
Democratic Front.

Pupils in green and white school uniforms were often at the forefront of
protests against military rule during national demonstrations a decade ago.