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TDY - Barking Myanmar animals warn



Subject: TDY - Barking Myanmar animals warn dissenters

The Daily Yomiuri - Sep 7, 1999.
Myanmar govt warns dissenters

Yangon (AP) - Efforts by Myanmar antigovernment activists to cause unrest
this week will be on vain, Myanmar Deputy Foreign Minister Khin Maung Win
tolds Ambassadors representing the countries of the Association of
Southeaast Asian Nations on Manday.
Groups opposed to the country's military government, especially those in
exile, are touting Thursday as a date when some sort of uprising will take
place. The basic for picking that date is simple superstition , since the
number "9" is said to have mystical powers, and Thursday is 9.9.99 - Sept.
9.
The date seems to have cause considerable skittishness among the
authorities, however, perhaps because superstition holds sway among a large
number of people in Myanmar, which is also called Burma.
According to a news release prepared in advance by the Myanmar Foreign
Ministry, ambassadors and charges d'affaires from Brunei, Cambodia,
Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam attended a
breifing on the situation at he invitation of Foreign Minister Win Aung.
The news release gave the text of a statement by Deputy Foreign Minister
Khin Maung Win which said that "subversive elements within and outside the
country, together with some NLD(National League For Democracy) members are
again trying to instigate unrest in the country.
The NLD is the main opposition party, led by Nobel peace laureate Aung San
Suu Kyi. It sufffers from harsh government repression.
Khin Maung also said that international short wave radio stations
broadcasting into Myanmar and Western media "were also giving entensive
coverage  almost everyday to those subversive activities."
"These efforts will be in vain, "he was quoted as saying "People in Myanmar
did not wish to see a repeat of the anarchic situation of 1988."