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Myanmar ethnic leaders who met U.N. official held

  
YANGON, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Myanmar's main opposition said on Friday the 
military government had arrested leaders of two allied ethnic parties who 
took part in talks with a U.N. envoy last month aimed at breaking the 
country's political deadlock. 

The National League for Democracy said Naing Tun Thein, 82, chairman of Mon 
National Democratic Front, and Kyin Shin Htan, chairman of Zomi National 
Congress, were arrested on November 3 for the second time in two years. 

It said no reason had been given for their detention and they should be 
immediately released without conditions. 

The two were among four ethnic leaders who met Assistant U.N. 
Secretary-General Alvaro de Soto last month when he came to Myanmar to try to 
promote dialogue between the ruling generals and the beleaguered opposition 
led by 1991 Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the NLD's secretary-general. 

``It is very narrow-minded to unlawful to arrest the leaders of the 
nationalities,'' the NLD said in a statement. ``The political, economic and 
social problems being faced in the country will not be resolved by arrests.'' 

The two were among three ethnic leaders arrested in September last year after 
backing a committee the NLD set up to represent a parliament never allowed to 
form following the party's landslide election victory in 1990. 

ANOTHER ETHNIC LEADER HELD SINCE 1998 

They were subsequently freed to allow them to receive medical treatment, but 
the third leader arrested with them, Saw Mra Aung, 82, of the Arakhan League 
for Democracy, remains in detention. 

Earlier this week, the NLD issued a statement saying the government had freed 
members of its central youth and women's committees detained since September 
last year. They had been held at Yangon's Insein Jail and a military camp and 
were freed in groups up to November 4, it said. It gave no numbers. 

The party praised the ``perseverance and courage'' of the committee members 
and said they had been unlawfully detained. 

The government spokesman declined to comment on the latest arrests reported 
by the NLD. 

De Soto's Myanmar mission followed a visit last year during which he raised 
the possibility of World Bank development aid if the government initiated a 
dialogue with the opposition. 

So far the military has refused to negotiate with Suu Kyi's party unless she 
disbands the committee set up to represent parliament, a challenge to its 
rule. 

The U.N. General Assembly, as well as Western countries led by the United 
States and the European Union, has condemned Myanmar for failing to 
democratise and severe human rights violations, including forced labour and 
torture. 

On Friday official newspapers in Myanmar reported that 70 fighters from the 
Karen National Union, an ethnic group that has fought the central government 
since the late 1940s, defected on Wednesday along with members of their 
families. 

The KNU is the largest of a handful of armed ethnic groups fighting the 
central government. The KNU and the government blamed each other for the 
failure of their last round of peace talks in November 1996. 

06:30 11-12-99