BURMA'S military rulers rounded up more pro democracy activists yesterday as the opposition prepared for a key meeting this weekend expected to bring a long standoff with the junta to a head.
Ms Aung San Suu Kyi told reporters at her lakeside compound yesterday that at least 216 activists from her main opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) had been detained since Monday.
She said that 195 of those arrested were NLD candidates who won seats in the 1990 elections and had been scheduled to attend a meeting tomorrow to mark the sixth anniversary of the polls.
Asked if the detentions would stop the meeting, Ms Suu Kyi said: "We intend to go ahead." She had however heard reports that the road outside her home could be barricaded by the authorities. None of the members of the NLD central committee had been picked up in the wave of detentions, she said, but all, including herself, were prepared for that possibility.
The NLD's determination to hold the meeting is being seen by analysts as a bold move to assert its political right to rule and force the junta into contact with an opposition it has been trying to keep sidelined.
. The convening of this meeting is a message by the NLD that there was an election in 1990 and that there are people who represent the people - not the SLORC the State Law and Order Restoration Council," said one Rangoon based analyst.
The SLORC, as the junta is officially known, refused to honour the results of the 1990 polls in which 392 out of 485 seats were won by the NLD.
Ms Suu Kyi's decision to bring together elected NLD candidates has put the junta in a quandary from which the only options of escape are dialogue or a crackdown on the opposition, the analyst said.
Deputy head of intelligence Colonel Kyaw Win said yesterday the detentions were a "preemptive measure" to prevent an escalation which would force the authorities to take drastic action.
This weekend's meeting, however, is a calculated manoeuvre to strip the convention of any credibility it has in the eyes of the international community and raise the NLD's profile, one diplomat said.
In this case, elected officials will be coming to discuss the setup of a new constitution, after which no one will give any importance to the efforts being made at the National Convention," the diplomat said.
Many observers here see international public opinion as a key factor in the NLD's long term plans.
Aung San Suu Kyi's main constituency is international public opinion, mainly in the United States and with the international press," another diplomat said, Her strategy is to make the SLORC look ugly."
The wave of detentions has clearly had that effect overseas, drawing condemnation from Australia, Britain, Japan and the United States, as well as more cautious criticism from some Asian countries.