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BBC-Suu Kyi rejects 'unity at gunpo



Subject: BBC-Suu Kyi rejects 'unity at gunpoint'

Thursday, March 4, 1999 Published at 13:57 GMT
World: Asia-Pacific

Suu Kyi rejects 'unity at gunpoint'

Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi says negotiation with the
military dictatorship which rules Burma is unavoidable.
She told the BBC said that situations like Burma always end at the
negotiating table and she hoped it would happen sooner rather than later.
David Willis talks to Aung San Suu Kyi
"The more intelligent people get to the negotiation table quicker because
they know that it is unavoidable, the less intelligent people think that
they can avoid it," she said in an exclusive interview with the BBC's David
Willis.

On Wednesday the NLD leader announced that 145 members of her party have
been detained by the government and persuaded to resign from the party. Ms
Suu Kyi told David Willis this is part of a 10-year process of intimidation
of her party.

"The important thing is that none of these resignations are valid because
there is no parliament to which they can submit their resignation," she
said.

The NLD won elections in Burma in 1990 by a large majority, but the military
annulled the results and Burma's leaders have consistently refused to
negotiate with any members of the opposition.

Disunity and NLD

On Wednesday, the new Foreign Minister Win Aung told the BBC that there must
be order and unity in Burma before progress towards democratisation can take
place.

The NLD stands accused by the government of trying to wreck that unity and
slandering government efforts to bring stability and prosperity to the
country. Ms Suu Kyi said unity is something that comes only after a process
of settling differences.

Win Aung: Government 'protects silent majority against NLD'
"What exactly do they mean by unity? If they think that unity can be imposed
by intimidating people by guns they are very much mistaken. Unity is
something that comes from within."

Win Aung also said the Burma universities, which have been closed for two
years and for much of the past decade, would reopen "as soon as possible".
He added that they had been closed because the students had been "misused"

by political forces "to rally and bring down the government".

Ms Suu Kyi responded that the universities are unlikely to re-open any time
soon.

"The government, the present military authorities are nervous of the
students and they know that the students have a lot to be dissatisfied
about."

Finally, when asked what the NLD's plans are for the next few months, Ms Suu
Kyi would not commit herself.

"We never talk about our future plans," she said with a smile. "That would
be too dangerous."