Myanmar's NLD sees new crackdown coming
Myanmar's NLD sees new crackdown coming
By Rajan Moses
BANGKOK (Reuters): Myanmar's ruling junta has forcibly fed the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) a dose of bitter preventive medicine by jailing a prominent woman leader of the organization, analysts said on Wednesday.
The ruling State Peace and Development Council's (SPDC) jailed the NLD's San San for breaching conditions of an amnesty under which she was released from prison while serving a 25-year sentence for treason.
A senior NLD leader, Tin Oo, told Reuters the jailing of San San indicated the SPDC had resumed harassing the opposition and signaled a new crackdown.
In past months, the SPDC allowed NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi to hold party meetings at her lakeside residence in Yangon, but stopped her from holding meetings in the townships.
"The sentence signals the resumption of political harassment and a crackdown on the opposition to deter us from doing our duty," Tin Oo said.
But Yangon-based diplomats said the move may simply be a warning to the NLD not to rock the status quo.
"It may be a warning to the NLD on its future activities. The message to the NLD may be...don't stage activities against the government and there is possibility for a dialogue, but if you do something we will take action," said an Asian diplomat.
San San, 60, was formerly deputy chairman of the NLD's Yangon division and a leading member of its women's group.
On Tuesday, the exiled All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF) said she had been jailed for taking part in a British Broadcasting Corp interview critical of the SPDC. The SPDC has denied this.
Tin Oo said San San had answered questions from the media because the telephones of other NLD leaders had been disconnected and they could not be contacted.
Another diplomat said: "What has happened seems very much like business as usual in Myanmar and I don't think it signals anything one way or the other."
An SPDC spokesman said San San was jailed for breaching legal conditions, but gave no details. "It is normal in any country to take legal action against anyone for breaching rules and regulations," he said.
"This is definitely not the start of a crackdown on the opposition," he added.
The spokesman said the exiled student groups, Amnesty International and others usually were critical of Myanmar around the time the United Nation Commission on Human Rights met.
"These anti-Myanmar government elements have been playing this game very annoyingly and have managed to dupe almost everyone," he added.
The UN body, at a meeting on Tuesday in Geneva, adopted a European Union motion condemning Myanmar for human rights abuses including extrajudicial executions, torture, and repression of ethnic and religious minorities.
The military seized power in 1988 after a bloody crackdown against pro-democracy protests. The NLD swept a 1990 general election but the junta ignored the result.
It has ruled with an iron hand, detaining and releasing thousands of NLD members and supporters and disrupting its meetings.
"At the moment there is no positive sign in the political field. The detention of NLD members continues and there has been no dialogue between the two sides," said the Asian diplomat.
"The test could come by late May when the NLD usually holds its party congress...to see what happens then," he added.
The SPDC tried to woo the NLD into a dialogue last year, but overtures by the SPDC's Secretary One, Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt, were spurned.
The NLD said it could not have a dialogue with the junta unless Nobel laureate Suu Kyi was included, but the SPDC has so far refused.