NEWS - Myanmar junta accuses NLD of

[Rangoonp@xxxxxxx]

Subject: NEWS - Myanmar junta accuses NLD of inciting 9/9/99 unrest

Myanmar junta accuses NLD of inciting 9/9/99 unrest
   
   YANGON, Aug 19 (AFP) - Myanmar's ruling military Thursday accused the 
opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) led by Aung San Suu Kyi
of 
working with dissidents and exiled students to incite a mass uprising
next 
month.
   Junta spokesman Colonel Than Tun said authorities had arrested some
33 
activists, including members of the NLD, in three towns near the capital
and 
were holding them for interrogation.
   He said that since early July authorities had seized thousands of 
"instigative leaflets," cassette tapes, videos and flags bearing the
fighting 
peacock logo of the democracy movement.
   Despite denials from the NLD leadership, he told reporters at a press 
conference that party members were "unquestionably involved" in the
alleged 
plans for unrest.
   The NLD led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi won 1990 elections in 
Myanmar but has been denied power by the military.
   Than Tun said the confiscated materials had originated in northern
Thailand 
and had been smuggled in by the All Burma Students' Democratic Front,
which 
the junta regards as a terrorist group.
   "They are acting in a synchronised manner ... they are heading for
internal 
riots," he said. "Most obviously they are doing so with moral and
material 
support from outside."
   Exiled pro-democracy activists based in Bangkok have been calling for
a 
mass uprising against the junta on September 9, or 9/9/99, a day of
numerical 
significance for many Burmese.
   This month saw the 11th anniversary of a popular uprising on August
8, 
1988, or 8/8/88, in which hundreds of pro-democracy demonstrators were
gunned 
down and a junta took power from dictator General Ne Win.
   Than Tun said the NLD's aims were identical to those of dissident
exiles 
who in collaboration with "certain foreign countries and certain foreign 
organisations were following a path detrimental to Maynmar's national 
interests and security."
   He said that in addition to distributing leaflets, "expatriate
saboteurs" 
had sent spies into the country with explosives.
   "In accordance with the wishes of the people, the State Peace and 
Development Council will resolutely prevent all schemes to cause
destruction 
to the nation," Than Tun said, using the junta's official name.
   The junta said Tuesday it had taken measures to prevent student
unrest in 
townships around the country following a protest in the southern town of 
Mergui.
   Dissident sources said some 30 high school students, many as young as
14 
and 15 years old, had been detained in the coastal town, 485 kilometers
(300 
miles) south of Yangon, after taking part in an anti-government
demonstration.
   Last week, Myanmar's military rulers said they had uncovered details
of a 
plan to instigate a mass uprising next month and warned the NLD not to
get 
involved.
   kmt-de/gw/jit