SCMP-Junta security drive to preven

[tinkyi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: SCMP-Junta security drive to prevent uprising

South China Morning Post
Tuesday, September 7, 1999
BURMA

Junta security drive to prevent uprising
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE in Rangoon

Rangoon has imposed new security measures ahead of a threatened uprising
this week by dissidents intent on loosening the junta's grip on power,
witnesses said yesterday.
Extra military and police had been deployed at official buildings, temples
and other important sites in the capital, residents said, and tea-shops and
restaurants where hundreds congregate after work had been asked to close.

Dissidents hope to foment civil unrest on Thursday - September 9, or Four
Nines Day - to repeat the bloody uprising of August 8, 1988.

State media has stepped up attacks on "destructive elements" and the
opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) led by Nobel peace laureate
Aung San Suu Kyi, who has refused to condemn the planned uprising.

"Authorities appear anxious not to unduly unsettle the general public and
are trying to maintain the 'business-as-usual' atmosphere," an observer
said.

"At the same time, they feel it necessary to take precautionary measures."

Officials were touring neighbourhoods reminding households to register all
overnight guests, a decades-old regulation rarely enforced except on
occasions regarded as significant, residents said.

Despite allegations by exiled dissidents, government schools appear to be
staying open, but officials said teaching staff had been told to keep a
close eye on students.

On Sunday the junta appealed to pro-democracy opposition forces to abandon
plans for a popular uprising this week and contribute "meaningfully" to the
development of the nation.

The junta has accused the NLD, which won a sweeping but officially
unrecognised election victory in 1990, of working with dissidents to provoke
unrest.

"The Government hopes that the groups [will] reconsider their stance and
contribute [in] a meaningful and positive way . . . instead of spreading
malicious rumours," a statement said.

"Their actions to create a revolution instead of a peaceful evolution is not
only irresponsible but hampering the country's development and adversely
affecting the life of the innocent mass population."

The junta said foreign governments were working with the opposition to
encourage the population to demand human rights.

"But in reality the very basic rights of the Myanmar [Burmese] people to
peace, development and prosperity have been prevented from materialising in
every imaginable possible way," the statement said.

"The current actions taken by one of the political parties in Myanmar in
collaboration with the anti-government quarters in this period of Myanmar's
transition to democracy is regretful."