Burmese govt gets tough with Suu Kyi

The Burmese military government brought detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi to the capital Yangon today after it also closed the offices of her party, held key supporters and ordered universities shut across Myanmar.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate was staying at a “safe place” after being brought from the country’s north where she was taken into “protective custody” two days ago, an official said.

However, she had not been taken to her family’s lakeside villa, where she has been held previously under house arrest until last year.

The crackdown, which has alarmed the United Nations and some foreign governments, followed a violent clash between her supporters and thousands of pro-junta protesters that left four people dead and another 50 injured in northern Myanmar on Friday.

Top leaders of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy were being held under house arrest in the capital, according to party members.

Western diplomats who tried to visit NLD leaders were turned away.

The junta said on Saturday that it had also placed 19 NLD members under custody.

Professors said they had been told to close universities and colleges today, a day before the start of a new term. No reason was given for the closures.

Myanmar’s university campuses in the past have been hotbeds of pro-democracy activism against the junta.

Since the current military regime took power in 1988, universities and colleges have been closed intermittently.

All universities and colleges were reopened in mid-2000 after nearly three and a half years of closure following student demonstrations in December 1996.

Today’s order applies to institutions under the Education Ministry, which controls most of the country’s colleges and universities.

Suu Kyi’s release from 19 months of house arrest in May 2002 had raised hopes of an end to Myanmar’s political stalemate, dating back to the NLD’s sweeping 1990 general election victory, never honoured by the junta.

But Friday’s bloodshed, which followed weeks of rising tensions, cast a long shadow over UN-backed efforts to help the opposing sides negotiate the political future of Myanmar, ruled by the military for 40 years.

A UN envoy is due to visit Myanmar later this week to try to restart talks between the government and Suu Kyi’s party.

A UN statement said Secretary-General Kofi Annan believes the “developments underline the urgent need for national reconciliation in Myanmar”.

European and American diplomats who tried to visit the residences of NLD party chairman Aung Shwe and spokesman U Lwin were turned away by security officials.

“We were told that we are not allowed to go in and told that U Lwin is not allowed to see us,” a Western ambassador said on condition of anonymity.

The NLD’s Yangon headquarters were closed and ”will be temporarily shut until the present problem is solved,” Brig. Than Tun, a government spokesman, told a news conference on Saturday. “Otherwise, more problems can be caused.”

The violence on Friday erupted when Suu Kyi’s motorcade tried to pass through a crowd of about 5,000 government supporters in Dipeyin town in northern Myanmar, Than Tun said.

A scuffle around her motorcade turned into a fight which left four people dead and 50 injured, he said. It wasn’t clear if the dead included NLD members.

Government officials accused Suu Kyi of making inflammatory speeches critical of the junta and of reopening some party offices without telling local authorities.

Suu Kyi spent six years under house arrest at her Yangon home in 1989-1995.

Human rights groups estimate there are 1,300 political prisoners in Myanmar, although since the faltering national reconciliation process began in October 2000, hundreds of NLD detainees have been released.