BANGKOK, Thursday.
BURMA'S military junta said today it would not bow to foreign pressure
to release detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Junta member General Khin Nyunt publicly acknowledged the award of the
Nobel Peace Prize to Aung San Suu Kyi but also ruled out any political
role for her.
He said in a speech that the opposition leader had received several
foreign awards, including the peace prize, and had been pushed into
becoming ''a great democratic hero'' by radio stations such as the BBC
and Voice of America.
''The State Law and Order Council government and the armed forces, for
the good of the Burmese people, race and religion, will never accept . .
. Suu Kyi,'' he said in the speech, broadcast on Tuesday and seen in
Bangkok yesterday.
It was thought to be the junta's first direct public acknowledgment of
the Nobel award although oblique references have been made in crude
propaganda attacks in the state media.
Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest in Rangoon since July
1989 after she galvanised the people with her charisma and courage.
Khin Nyunt said any interference on her behalf would ''be considered
to be bullying our country, threatening our country. We will not heed
anybody's threat.''
The general is chief of military intelligence and considered the most
powerful figure in the junta which seized direct power in September 1988
as troops brutally crushed a pro-democracy uprising against an
army-backed socialist oligarchy.
The Nobel committee said Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the peace prize
for her peaceful opposition to ''a regime characterised by brutality''.
The junta has refused to allow resident foreign diplomats to visit her
and has turned down requests from foreign government delegations to see
her since she was honoured.
Khin Nyunt repeated old charges that Aung San Suu Kyi had links with
''terrorist insurgents'' and that she was ineligible to take part in
Burmese politics because of her marriage to a British citizen, academic
Michael Aris.
Mr Aris, who is based in the United States, has been unable to
communicate with her.--Reuter.
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