NEWS - Myanmar Opposition Says Legi

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Subject: NEWS - Myanmar Opposition Says Legislator Fled to Disputed Border

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Myanmar Opposition Says Legislator Fled to Disputed Border Area

            AP
            18-JAN-99

            BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- An ethnic minority member of
            Myanmar's Parliament has fled to an area on the country's
            rugged border with Thailand lying outside the government's
            control, an opposition group said today. 

            Naing Thaung Shein of the Mon National Democratic Front
            fled in late December due to the military government's
            repression of its opponents, the All Burma Students'
            Democratic Front said in a statement. 

            The statement did not say where the 51-year-old lawmaker
            had fled but suggested that he was in an area controlled by
            ethnic rebels opposed to the government. 

            The statement, which cited unnamed sources, said
            Myanmar's military intelligence agency detained Naing
            Thaung Shein's son in retaliation. 

            The student group, based along the Thai-Myanmar border,
            said Myanmar's government intensified a crackdown on
            members of Naing Thaung Shein's party after they joined
            with the country's main opposition party leader, Nobel
            laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, in trying to force Parliament to
            convene. 

            The military government refused to allow Parliament to meet
            after Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won a
            landslide victory in a 1990 general election. 

            Today's statement added that the chairman of the Mon
            National Democratic Front, Naing Htun Thein, had been
            detained without trial and that three other members of the
            ethnic party had been sentenced in December to seven
            years' imprisonment. 

            Asked about the claims made in the student group
            statement, a government spokesman responded by fax that
            the three convicted men had been found guilty of attempting
            to create a misunderstanding and trying to derail an
existing
            peace agreement between the Mon ethnic group and the
            government. 

            The spokesman, who insisted on anonymity, said Naing
            Thaung Shein fled because he was wanted on the same
            charges and that his son was arrested for violating
            immigration laws.