U TIN OO DETAINED

[darnott@xxxxxxxxxxx]

U TIN OO DETAINED


Suu Kyi removed from station for being 'abusive,' aide detained

AP, Rangoon, 22 September 2000. A top opposition leader was put
under detention after he and pro-democracy Aung San Suu Kyi
were barred from leaving the capital by train in their latest
confrontation with Myanmar's junta, the government said Friday.

Suu Kyi and Tin Oo, the deputy leader of her National League
for Democracy, were evicted early Friday from the capital Yangon's
railway station when they became ''abusive,'' a government
statement said.

Suu Kyi was escorted back home, it added.

But Tin Oo, 77, and eight other NLD workers who were planning
to accompany Suu Kyi on her train journey to the north for party
work were taken to a ''government guest house as a temporary
measure to prevent similar incidents,'' a military official said.

''This is for the time being,'' he said, speaking on condition of
anonymity.

Several opposition leaders have been taken to government guest
houses in the past, only to be kept there against their will for as
long as two years. The government denies such detention constitutes
arrest without charges.

The junta, which has little tolerance for opposition, disapproves of
Suu Kyi's efforts to conduct party work in the countryside and
has physically prevented her from doing so on several occasions. The
NLD won the elections in 1990 but the military has refused to hand
over power.

In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said
Suu Kyi, who won the 1991 Nobel Peace prize for her democracy
work,  was ''forcibly removed'' from the station.

''This blatant, heavy-handed action is only the latest outrage
committed against Aung San Suu Kyi and other party leaders,''
she said in a statement.

The military official said the railways will also take action against
Tin Oo for disrupting work at the station on Thursday when he,
Suu Kyi and the others arrived to travel to Mandalay, Myanmar's
second largest city.

They were prevented from boarding four consecutive trains after
being told that all tickets had been sold out.

The government statement said they refused to leave at closing
time even after station authorities said they were obstructing workers.

''Apparently upset that there were no seats available ... Ms. Suu Kyi
lashed out at a station cleaning crew before being asked to leave by
station authorities,'' the statement said.

''They became abusive toward station cleaning staff and had to be
escorted from the building at approximately 1 a.m.,'' the statement
said. ''The government is investigating the incident,'' it added.

It said tickets to Mandalay, 560 kilometers (350 miles) north of
Yangon, are in high demand and have to be booked three days in
advance.

Suu Kyi's last confrontation with the government was Aug. 24
when she was barred from driving to a southern town and later
put under virtual house arrest along with Tin Oo and other top
leaders of the NLD from Sept. 1 to Sept. 14.

After the station standoff on Thursday, reporters saw Suu Kyi's
vehicle leaving the station accompanied by unmarked police cars.
The convoy went to Suu Kyi's house.

Myanmar has been ruled by the military continuously since 1962.
The current generals took power in 1988 after crushing a nationwide
uprising for democracy, killing thousands of people.

Suu Kyi was kept under house arrest from 1989 to 1995, and her
movements have remained heavily restricted.

Suu Kyi last tried to travel by train, also to Mandalay, in March 1996,
when authorities disconnected her carriage, saying it had developed
mechanical problems and could not make the journey.

On Wednesday, Myanmar's Foreign Minister Win Aung told the
United Nations that his government has been under ''unfair scrutiny''
and political pressure from other nations while it is establishing its
own kind of democracy.