Burma detains many Suu Kyi followers

RANGOON - The Burmese authorities had picked up over 400 people in a clampdown on Ms Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy…

RANGOON - The Burmese authorities had picked up over 400 people in a clampdown on Ms Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy in the past four days, NLD sources said yesterday. Authorities have said only that they invited "some" NLD members for questioning ahead of an NLD congress that was to have been held at the weekend.

The NLD sources said that some of the first people detained were already being released. Earlier yesterday sources said that as many as 120 delegates to the planned three day party congress were taken from their homes on Thursday or early Friday before the meeting was scheduled to start.

Between 100 and 200 people were rounded up in Rangoon townships, the sources said. Another 100 or so were taken off the streets on Saturday in the area of police blockades intended to bar access to Ms Suu Kyi's home where she made public appearances.