SCMP-General vows to annihilate opp

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Subject: SCMP-General vows to annihilate opponents

Friday  February 12  1999
Burma

General vows to annihilate opponents

AGENCIES in Rangoon
Updated at 5.10pm:
Burma's leader called for the annihilation of traitors in a speech on Friday
to mark Union Day, a holiday celebrating national unity.

An aide to opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi said her political party would
hold subdued and private celebrations at her Rangoon compound as many party
members were still being detained by the junta.

''Annihilate internal and external destructive elements who are trying to
disrupt the tranquility and development of the country,'' General Than Shwe,
chairman of the military government, said in a speech read by a subordinate.

''Internal destructive elements are blatantly transgressing, to break the
national solidarity, using external compradore axe-handles, to wreck the
stable, peaceful, tranquil and developing situation in the country.''

Ms Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy are frequently
described as traitors and ''axe-handles'' by the junta and accused of
conspiring with foreign powers to overthrow the Government.

The Government held a small flag-raising ceremony with members of Burma's
eight major ethnic groups in a Rangoon park to mark the holiday.

As the official ceremony went ahead, Ms Aung San Suu Kyi handed out free
rice to a huge crowd outside her party offices.

Union Day commemorates the signing of the 1947 Panglong Agreement between
the ethnic groups and the Burmans, who make up the majority of the
population.

The treaty was engineered by Ms Aung San Suu Kyi's father, General Aung San,
regarded as the founder of modern Burma and one of the few Burmese who
earned the trust of the ethnic groups.

In Bangkok on Friday, about 40 exiled Burmese students protested against
government repression in front of the Burma embassy.

Also in Bangkok, a member of Burma's government-in-exile said that although
the military had forced NLD members to resign, support for the party
remained strong.

''Even though they resigned from the NLD, they are still on our side to
support democracy in Burma,'' said Thein Oo, at a news conference.

Thein Oo was elected to parliament in a 1990 election that the military
refused to honour. The NLD won 82 per cent of the seats in the legislature.


Thein Oo called on the international community to step up pressure on the
military to honour the election result.