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AP-Myanmar Party Nixes Talk Conditi



Subject: AP-Myanmar Party Nixes Talk Conditions

Wednesday July 21 6:16 AM ET

Myanmar Party Nixes Talk Conditions

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - Myanmar's pro-democracy opposition today spurned
conditions the military regime had set for holding talks aimed at breaking
the nation's political impasse.

The government last week urged the National League for Democracy headed by
Aung San Suu Kyi to be ``pragmatic'' and dissolve a committee set up last
year representing a parliament elected in 1990 that the military never
allowed to convene.

Tin Oo, vice chairman of the NLD, ruled out abolishing the committee, as
expected, since the party's legitimacy is closely identified with the
election victory. He said the party had already made a significant
concession by agreeing that Suu Kyi, 54, did not have to take part in
initial talks.

``Asking us to abolish the 10-member committee is tantamount to setting a
precondition,'' Tin Oo said. ``The door to open a dialogue is always open,
but we will not dissolve the committee.''

Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, has called for a dialogue
since she was freed from six years of house arrest in 1995.

The military, which has ruled Myanmar, also known as Burma, since 1962,
refuses to speak to her. Last year, two meetings were held with party
chairman Aung Shwe. The NLD described the meeting as being given orders to
stop causing trouble.

Suu Kyi, daughter of independence hero Aung San, vaulted to the head of
Myanmar's opposition in 1988 during anti-government riots. She marked the
52nd anniversary Monday of her father's murder by a political rival. It was
one of the few appearances she has been allowed to make.

Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest 10 years ago Tuesday. Even so, her
charisma and general dissatisfaction with military rule gave her party a
landslide victory in the 1990 elections.

The military views Suu Kyi as a tool of Western attempts to dominate the
country, and expresses outrage that she has supported foreign economic
sanctions to push for change.

The sanctions have crippled the biggest achievement of the current
generation of generals, transforming a quarter-century of socialist
isolation into a more market-oriented system.