Reuters-Myanmar Says NLD Trying To

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Myanmar Says NLD Trying To Provoke Clampdown 
07:28 a.m. Sep 18, 1998 Eastern 

YANGON, Myanmar (Reuters) - Ten years after seizing power by bloodily
suppressing a pro-democracy uprising, Myanmar's ruling military accused the
opposition Friday of using a declaration of a de facto parliament to
provoke harsh counter-measures. 



``They are trying to make the government take harsh reaction against
them,'' a spokesman for the ruling military council said. 



``Only then will they be able to highlight anti-government moves at the
U.N. General Assembly that is to take place soon.'' 



Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy said
Thursday that a 10-person committee it formed this week would act on behalf
of a parliament elected in 1990 but never allowed by the military to
convene. 



In what analysts called a largely symbolic but well-timed challenge, the
panel named a chairman of parliament and declared laws introduced since the
military seized direct control on September 18, 1988, illegal unless
approved by the body. 



Yangon residents said there was no sign Friday of any military move against
the NLD leaders who made the declaration. They said the capital was calm
with no sign of increased security, despite the anniversary of the
takeover. 



A government statement ``noted with interest'' the NLD announcement. 



``It would be interesting to hear more about how this committee intends to
govern,'' it said, adding that the NLD had never put forward any specific
policy ideas. 



``While the NLD's committee puzzles over these issues, the current
government will continue to shoulder the real responsibility of governing
Myanmar.'' 



The military ignored the 1990 election result when the NLD won by a
landslide. It argues that formation of a parliament requires a constitution
to replace that it abolished in 1988, when troops killed thousands,
according to most independent estimates, to crush a nationwide
pro-democracy uprising. 



A national convention began painfully slow work on a new basic law in 1993,
but it has been suspended since 1996. 



The NLD said the parliamentary term would last until a democratic
constitution was approved by the parliament. 



It made its move after the generals responded to its vow to call a
``People's Parliament'' this month by detaining a large number of its
members. 



The party says that since May, more than 800 of its members, including 196
elected representatives, have been detained. Most have been picked up in
the past two weeks. 



``I think this is an act like in a game of chess,'' Josef Silverstein, a
professor at Rutgers University in the United States, said in a telephone
interview with Reuters in Bangkok. 



``The military seized everybody they could and said 'now you can't hold
this parliament'. She (Suu Kyi) checks that move by saying we have the
proxies. 



``It's up now to the military to check her again. The question is are they
now going to raid her house and arrest her, as in a sense she seems to have
outfoxed them once again.'' 



Suu Kyi, daughter of Myanmar independence hero Aung San, was held under
house arrest for six years until 1995. Recent state media commentaries have
urged that she be deported. 



Sunday, state media warned that NLD deputy leader Tin Oo, another member of
the party committee, faced possible arrest, saying he had been involved
distributing leaflets aimed at sowing discord in the military. 



Maureen Aung Thwin, Washington-based director of the Burma Project of the
Soros Foundation's Open Society Institute, said the military would want to
avoid criticism at the U.N. session next week, when foreign ministers and
other senior leaders deliver policy statements. 



``My guess is they won't overreact,'' she said. ``In many ways the NLD's
timing has been brilliant. I think it's very difficult for the military to
act now, but they may decide to crack down again later once attention is
elsewhere.'' 



The analysts said it was significant the NLD had said that four ethnic
minority groups, two of which have agreed cease-fires with the government,
had supported its move. 



``I think what the military fears more than anything else is an alliance
between the NLD, which is dominated by ethnic Burmans, and the ethnic
minorities,'' Maureen Aung Thwin said. 



Silverstein said the NLD action might provide a rallying point for
students, who led the 1988 uprising and staged rare protests late last
month and early this month.