NEWS - 992 Nld Members Resign in M

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Subject: NEWS  - 992 Nld Members Resign in Myanmar (more coersive actions

taken)
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NOTE: Any Mass resignation can only mean one thing, they were coerced
and pressured.  The military is causing them to break their the laws
they created for party registration.

992 Nld Members Resign in Myanmar: Newspaper

            Xinhua
            22-NOV-98

            YANGON (Nov. 22) XINHUA - A total of 992 members of
            Myanmar's opposition National League for Democracy (NLD)
            from 15 township branches in 8 states and divisions of the
            country have resigned up to November 18 since September,
            the New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported Sunday. 

            Meanwhile, 10 branches of the party have been dissolved,
            the official newspaper said. 

            The NLD members are said to have resigned out of their
            own volition, for they had no desire to carry out political
            activities of the party. 

            The NLD members and branches are said to have presented
            their resignation and dissolution requests to their
respective
            township offices of the Multi-Party Democracy Election
            Commission formed to supervise the general election held in
            May 1990. 

            However, the Yangon-based NLD headquarters charged in a
            series of statements that the authorities have been cracking
            down on the party, pressuring its detained members to
            resign and some township branches to dissolve illegally and
            forcibly. 

            The NLD said it "could not accept the dissolution (of the
            branches) at all," adding that "as a branch of the party, it
has
            no rights to do so without the knowledge of the Central
            Headquarters." 

            It also said that the move goes against the Political
Parties
            Registration Law designed by the authorities concerned. 

            The resignation of the NLD members and the dissolution of
            its branches came after a series of government-organized
            "mass rallies" across the country against the NLD and its
            leadership, especially Aung San Suu Kyi, the party's general
            secretary. 

            The NLD said the authorities were "illegally" using people
            from all walks of life who are under "pressure" to express
the
            "people's desire," creating further political confusion. 

            It also stressed that it reserves the rights to organize
similar
            mass rallies to present facts on the current situation in
            Myanmar as a legal political party. 

            The NLD won the 1990 general election -- contested by 93
            political parties -- with 396 parliamentary seats out of
485.