Myanmar Leaders Denounce Pro-Democracy Activists
YANGON, Myanmar — This nation’s military rulers denounced pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her followers as dupes and “maggots” for going ahead with the most important opposition meeting since the junta quashed 1990 elections.
The regime had arrested 238 conference delegates and 24 other party members to try to block Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy from opening its three-day conference Sunday. But even though only 18 delegates made it, the meeting has proceeded as scheduled.
Suu Kyi and her followers said Monday that an unknown number of the activists recently arrested were transferred to a prison notorious for torture.
In published remarks Monday, junta leader Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt denounced the meeting and accused the opposition of falling prey to the United States and other Western nations that he claims seek to colonize Myanmar, formerly called Burma.
The conference’s ultimate objective is to get Burma’s military rulers to accept the results of 1990 parliamentary elections that Suu Kyi’s party overwhelmingly won.
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