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| Southeast Asia | |
| Burma's opposition leaders meet Aung San Suu Kyi | |
| 2004-04-28 | |
| Senior members of Burma's National League for Democracy (NLD) have met their detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi at her home in Rangoon. All nine members of the NLD's decision-making Central Executive Committee were present. Vice-chairman, Tin Oo, was brought from house arrest to attend the three hour talks. All the party leaders were taken into detention last May when Aung San Suu Kyi's convoy was attacked by a pro-junta gang during a political tour of northern Burma. The clash was the start of a major crackdown on the pro-democracy opposition. The NLD has made repeated requests to the ruling junta for a meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi to discuss the regime's plans to begin a national convention to draft a new constitution on May 17 and whether to attend the forum. The ruling junta is keen for as many political parties and ethnic groups as possible to attend the convention, which is the first step in its so-called "roadmap to The AFP news agency says hopes were high until recently that Aung San Suu Kyi and Tin Oo would be freed before the convention began, but those prospects appear to have faded in recent days as the tense political atmosphere heightens in Rangoon. Aung San Suu Kyi was detained at an undisclosed location after a clash between her supporters and pro-junta demonstrators on May 30. She was admitted to hospital on September 17 for surgery and was transferred from there to house arrest on September 26. It is her third period of house arrest since the late 1980s.
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| Posted by:Steve White |