Suu Kyi Challemges Junta's Laws

[RANGOONP@xxxxxxx]

Suu Kyi Challenges Myanmar Laws


 .c The Associated Press 

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- Aung San Suu Kyi and nine other pro-democracy
politicians today confirmed their intentions to act as Myanmar's parliament,
their most serious challenge yet to the military government. 

Calling themselves the Committee to Represent Elected Lawmakers, they also
declared illegal all laws and proclamations issued since the military
leadership came to power in a coup 10 years ago Friday. 

The politicians are risking arrest with their actions. The military has warned
them that attempting to convene the parliament elected in 1990 is illegal. 

To prevent the parliament from meeting, the military has arrested 843 members
of Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, since May, including
195 elected representatives, a party statement said today. The arrests are the
most severe attempt by the government to crush the democratic opposition since
the early 1990s. 

The committee's first parliamentary resolution was to call for the release of
all political prisoners. The committee's 10 members ``will perform the
functions of the Parliament until a formal Parliament session is called under
the 1990 multiparty democratic election law,'' their statement said. 

Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been ruled by the military since 1962. The
current leaders seized power on Sept. 18, 1988 by crushing a nationwide
uprising against military rule. Troops gunned down thousands of people. 

Elections were held in 1990 for a 459-member parliament but the military
refused to honor the results after Suu Kyi's party won 82 percent of seats.
The 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner was placed under house arrest by the
military at the time. 

AP-NY-09-17-98 1105EDT