Reuters-Myanmar says dissidents on

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Subject: Reuters-Myanmar says dissidents on disinformation campaign 

Myanmar says dissidents on disinformation campaign
03:27 a.m. Aug 22, 1999 Eastern
YANGON, Aug 22 (Reuters) - Myanmar's military government on Sunday said
dissident groups had embarked on an aggressive disinformation campaign to
spur civil unrest ahead of the ``four nines'' day next month.

A government statement said anti-government organisations had resorted to
desperate attempts to attack the government and spread false reports on
religious persecution, drug trafficking, mass arrest and internal
repression.

``Merely engaging in non-constructive acts at a time all Myanmar people are
working hard to face the challenge of rebuilding a new nation, seems rather
frivolous and will not only hamper its development but also delay its
progress,'' it said.

The exiled All Burma Students' Democratic Front (ABSDF) said on Saturday
that high school students in Yangon had staged a protest over inadequate
education facilities, and seven were briefly detained.

The ABSDF said students at the Basic Education High School in Yangon's
suburban Tamwe township held the protest on August 19 in the presence of
Khin Win Shwe, the wife of Myanmar's powerful intelligence chief, Lieutenant
General Khin Nyunt.

A Myanmar military spokesman denied that students had staged protests and
said the ABSDF statement was a fabrication to attract media attention.

The ABSDF and other dissidents in exile have called a general strike on
September 9, 1999 -- the so-called ``four nines'' day.

The military said last Thursday it had arrested 36 people in connection with
earlier attempts to instigate an uprising next month.

Dissidents chose September 9 for their uprising call because of its
numerical significance after ``four eights day -- August 8, 1998 -- when a
student-led pro-democracy revolt began in Myanmar. The military crushed that
revolt with heavy loss of life.