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Myanmar Reopens Opposition Headquarters

Posted on: Friday, 16 April 2004, 06:00 CDT

YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar's military government on Saturday reopened the headquarters of Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition National League for Democracy party, almost a year after it was shut down, a party official said.

Three government officials broke open the wax seal on a lock on the office door near the Shwedagon Pagoda in the Bahan area of Yangon, said Maung Maung Yin, the party's joint secretary of the Bahan district.

He told The Associated Press that the officials came to his house in the morning and asked him to accompany them while they broke open the seal.

The junta shut down the headquarters and all other party offices in a nationwide crackdown on May 31, 2003, the day after a clash between supporters of pro-democracy leader Suu Kyi and a pro-junta mob the previous night.

Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel Peace laureate, remains under house arrest. All other top party leaders were arrested but most have been released.

The junta has been in power since 1988 when it crushed a pro-democracy movement. It called elections in 1990 but refused to hand over power when Suu Kyi's party won. The junta now stands largely isolated by the West and is the focus of intense criticism for its human rights record in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

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