AP-Myanmar Has Quiet Independence D

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Subject: AP-Myanmar Has Quiet Independence Day

Monday January 4 1:43 PM ET

Myanmar Has Quiet Independence Day

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi and her
opposition party quietly marked Myanmar's independence day Monday under the
shadow of a stepped up crackdown by the military regime.

The National League for Democracy held a modest gathering in Suu Kyi's
compound in the capital of Yangon, passing out rice to about 60 women and
children - a gesture calling attention to poverty under military rule.

The ceremony was in stark contrast to the party's large celebration last
year, and to Independence Day festivities held by the Myanmar military
regime.

The government marked the day in official flag-raising ceremonies by
denouncing Suu Kyi and her party as traitors.

Gen. Than Shwe, in a statement read at the flag-raising, declared that
Myanmar's citizens were united ``against the destructive threats of
ax-handles and neo-colonialists abroad.'' ``Ax-handle'' is a slang word for
traitor.

The military launched a new crackdown on Suu Kyi's party after it failed
last year to get the regime to convene a parliament that was democratically
elected in 1990 but has never met.

In recent months, the military has rounded up about 1,000 members of her
party and detained them until they resigned and quit politics. Last week,
256 more party members quit.

``Though half a century has elapsed since Myanmar gained independence, the
prosperity which the country enjoyed earlier is slowly diminishing,'' the
National League for Democracy said. ``Independence has no meaning when the
people have lost their rights and freedom.''

The party vowed in a statement to ``keep striving for the convening of a
parliament and to ensure democracy and human rights in the country.''

The 1990 elections were overwhelmingly won by the opposition, but the
military never allowed the parliament to meet.

Myanmar - also known as Burma - gained independence from Britain in 1948 and
has been ruled since 1962 by the military.