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AUNG SAN SUU KYI SPEAKS OUT AGAINST ARBITRARY ARRESTS OF NLD MEMBERS
BBC: 13 January, 1999
East Asia Today
With a continuing political stalemate in Burma between the military junta and the National League for Democracy - which won the l990 elections - the NLD has started legal action against one of the junta's leaders Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt. The party says he is responsible for arbitrarily arresting its members and forcing them to resign from the NLD. Last weekend the Burmese press reported that the authorities were considering whether to arrest NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi on charges of making contact with illegal groups, including Karen guerrillas.
East Asia Today's Larry Jagan spoke to Aung San Suu Kyi at her home in Rangoon - and he asked her first what the state of play was in terms of resignations from the party:
Aung San Suu Kyi: The business about the resignations from the party is in one way a hilarious business. In another of course, it's a reflection of how much oppression there is in this country. It's hilarious because some of the people who resigned, or who were supposed to have resigned, are people who have hardly had anything to do with the NLD for years and years. Also, I understand that in some townships they are forcing people who have never been members of the NLD to resign as members of the NLD.
Larry Jagan: So are you saying that this is a publicity stunt as far as the government is concerned and that most of the NLD members are still very strongly committed to the party?
Aung San Suu Kyi: It's not entirely a publicity stunt on their part. I am sure they would like the members of the NLD to really resign, but if they can't get members of the NLD to resign - and in most cases they can't - they simply trump up these resignations. It's a real farce because if you consider the fact that we had literally membership in the millions in 1989 and now they announce things like twelve members of the NLD from such and such a township resigned, you can see how farcical the whole thing is.
Larry Jagan: But this must still be putting pressure on you and the central committee and making it harder for the NLD to operate as a legal party?
Aung San Suu Kyi: No, because these so-called members of the NLD who resigned - as I said I'm not even sure that some of them are really members of the NLD - are not only few but also those who are not doing anything in the line of party organizational work. So their so-called resignations don't affect us in anyway.
Larry Jagan: I understand that the NLD has issued legal action against the Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt because of the pressure that is being brought to bear on the NLD and the arrests that have happened.
Aung San Suu Kyi: I don't know that it's actually addressed against Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt but it's addressed against the military intelligence because they have been exercising undue influence to force members of the NLD party to resign and to destroy township committees of the NLD. This is against the law. Everything we do is within the bounds of the law as it stands today.
Larry Jagan: What do you think is actually going to happen to this writ? Is the government going to take it seriously?
Aung San Suu Kyi: We have to wait and see. This is not the first time we've brought out a writ against the government. Larry Jagan: What happened to the previous ones?
Aung San Suu Kyi: We've heard nothing about those so we'll have to see what the next step is because in accordance with the law you can't just ignore something like that when it is put up.
Larry Jagan: Apart from the pressure on NLD members to resign, what other actions is the government taking to try and curtail NLD activity?
Aung San Suu Kyi: The usual things. They're making it difficult for our township committees to carry on with their everyday party organizational work. It's just pressure and arrests. They don't seem to know any other way of dealing with the party.
Larry Jagan: What effect is that having on the party?
Aung San Suu Kyi: A lot of our people are under detention - members of parliament as well as active members of the NLD - and in some ways, of course, that means that those who are left outside have to work harder. But another effect of this is that we gain a lot of sympathy from the public because it is so obvious the unfairness of the tactics of the authorities, that we find that we've had a lot of public sympathy. This is expressed not just in words, but also in the form of donations etc.
Larry Jagan: This impasse between the NLD and the military authorities has been going on for many years now. Is there any way it can be broken?
Aung San Suu Kyi: Yes of course. Impasses have always existed between dictatorships and those opposed to dictatorships. But they do get broken.
Larry Jagan: Is there anything that you can see in the near future that might actually lead to some kind of dialogue between yourself and the NLD and the military government?
Aung San Suu Kyi: No particular event, but as I've always said, there's no other way except dialogue, and we'll get there in the end, in spite of the intransigence of the military authorities.
Larry Jagan: When the UN representative de Soto was in Burma last year, I understand there was some discussion about ways in which the international community might help to broker some kinds of talks, and part of that might have been World Bank funding for projects. Has that got anywhere?
Aung San Suu Kyi: I don't know. That is something you'll have to ask Mr de Soto about.
Larry Jagan: What is the NLD position as far as the carrots and sticks type strategy that the UN might be trying to adopt, is concerned?
Aung San Suu Kyi: I think we'll need to know more about the particulars of the carrots and sticks, if such a tactic exists, before we decide what stand we want to take on it.