Myanmar media blames Suu Kyi

Myanmar media blames Suu Kyi

Associated Press, Yangon

Myanmar's state-run press blamed detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Saturday for a bloody clash between her followers and government supporters, and said the violence showed she was incapable of running the country.

Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has been held under "protective detention" by the military government since the May 30 clash in northern Myanmar in which at least four people died. Top members of her National League for Democracy party have also been put under house arrest and party offices have been closed nationwide.

The government says members of Suu Kyi's party instigated the violence when her motorcade was confronted by thousands of military supporters. But opposition accounts say progovernment thugs ambushed Suu Kyi's motorcade, stabbing and beating her followers as they neared the town of Depayin and killing up to 80 people.

If Suu Kyi "caused a violent clash because she had not been able to deal with a group of peaceful protesters, it is hard for us to believe her utterances that she is capable of dealing with matters concerning ethnic problems and the whole country," the state-run Myanma Ahlin newspaper said in a commentary.

The junta says its strong-arm rule is necessary to control Myanmar's fractious ethnic minorities, and that it will restore democracy when the time is ripe.

The newspaper described the opposition account as "slanderous lies and accusations and rumors", including that the attack was a premeditated government plot.

World leaders including U.S. President George W. Bush and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan have urged Suu Kyi's immediate release.