NEWS - Myanmar Opposition Speaks Ou

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Subject: NEWS - Myanmar Opposition Speaks Out

Myanmar Opposition Speaks Out

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - Myanmar's state-controlled press is spreading
rumors of mass resignations in pro-democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party, the dissident said Thursday.

Suu Kyi, head of the embattled National League for Democracy, told
foreign journalists that some resignations were forced
under threat of jail and others were fabricated and submitted by people
who were not party members.

``Immense pressure is subjected on our people everywhere,'' said Suu
Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize.

For several months, the media - all of which is controlled by the
military government - has been reporting the resignations of
members of the NLD across Mynamar, also known as Burma.

The propaganda war heated up last year when Suu Kyi and her colleagues
declared they were creating an alternative
parliament to symbolically represent the legislature voters elected in
1990.

The NLD won a landslide victory in those elections, but the military,
which has ruled since 1962, never allowed the
legislature to meet.

The government reacted to the new moves by detaining more than 100 party
officials who were among the would-be
lawmakers and reportedly tried to coerce them to resign from the party.

The government's next move was to report the resignations of NLD members
at the grassroots level and the alleged
voluntary closings of local party offices.

Lately, the government has publicized what is alleged to be a grassroots
campaign to recall and deprive NLD victors of their
seats from the 1990 election with so-called no-confidence motions.

Suu Kyi said the motions included forged signatures and party
identifications which were clearly bogus.

``You can see this is all organized by the authorities,'' Suu Kyi said.
``We don't take these seriously at all except as to the
pressure to which our people are subjected.''