AP-Myanmar Lawmaker Said To Flee

[tinkyi@xxxxxxx]

Monday January 18 12:16 PM ET

Myanmar Lawmaker Said To Flee

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.



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