Reuters-Myanmar dissidents upbeat o

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Myanmar dissidents upbeat on takeover anniversary
04:43 a.m. Sep 18, 1999 Eastern
BANGKOK, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Dissident exiles said on the 11th anniversary
of Myanmar's military takeover on Saturday they were confident of achieving
democracy soon and called for continued international support for their
cause.

Leaders of the National Council of the Union of Burma, an umbrella group of
dissidents based on the Thai-Myanmar border, told a Bangkok news conference
that even though a mass uprising they called for last week hand not
materialised they had succeeded in putting ruling generals on the defensive.

They said the scattered protests that had occurred on and leading up to the
numerically significant four nines day -- September 9, 1999 -- had been
``only a beginning.''

``People need change and the international community believes Burma needs
change, that is why this a good time and a good year to push forwards,''
said Moe Thee Zun, vice president of the All Burma Students' Democratic
Front (ABSDF).said.

``We have full confidence that we will achieve our goal in the very near
future,'' he said. ``We would like to appeal to the international
community...that this is the time to support us.''

Inside Myanmar the capital Yangon was quiet on Saturday and official media
made no mention of the military takeover on September 18, 1988, when troops
killed several thousand people to crush a nationwide pro-democracy uprising.

But state-run newspapers carried articles denouncing government opponents as
``cohorts of neocolonialists'' bent on destroying the nation by campaigning
for economic sanctions.

``There are a handful of forces hindering the path we are following,'' the
report quoted Khin Marlar Maung, a representative of the pro-government
Union Solidarity Development Association (UWSA), as saying.

``They are destroying our nation by preventing all assistance, even social
and educational assistance.''

The newspapers quoted the head of the ruling military council, General Than
Shwe, as saying that 11.8 million people had joined the UWSA since its
founding in 1993 and would join hands with the armed forces in defending the
nation.

Moe Thee Zun said the security clampdown the generals imposed to thwart the
uprising showed they were not in a strong position. ``They are not on the
offensive, they are on the defensive right now.''

He conceded that the pro-democracy movement was hampered by communications
problems given tight military control, not least through the continued
closure of schools and universities, which were the hotbeds of
anti-government dissent in the past.

However, he added: ``Now we are building better and better communications
they cannot shut the mouths of all the people.''

Myanmar's military has been widely criticised for rights abuses since
crushing the 1988 uprising and ignoring the result of the country's last
election two years later when the opposition National League for Democracy
won by a landslide.

An NCUB statement said that of the 392 NLD members who won seats in the
election, 109 were in prison or detention, two had died in prison and more
than 100 had been forced to resign or into exile. It said 132 remained
active.