Yangon: Members of Aung San Suu Kyi`s
now-defunct political party today marked 20 years since
Myanmar`s last elections as activists called for greater
international pressure on the junta.
Supporters of the detained pro-democracy icon gathered
in Yangon two decades after their National League for
Democracy (NLD) party won polls by a landslide in a result
that the country`s ruling generals refused to recognise.
The first elections since then are due later this year
but the NLD was forcibly dissolved this month after refusing
to meet a deadline to re-register as a political party -- a
move that would have forced it to expel its leader.
"The NLD has struggled through very rough situations in
the past two decades," said 83-year-old Tin Oo, vice-chairman
of the former party, as he hosted a tea party for the
anniversary of the May 27, 1990 vote.
The group marked the date by pledging educational
assistance for family members of Myanmar`s political prisoners
and by planting trees inside Tin Oo`s compound.
"The NLD is still standing. We will keep trying until we
are allowed to work officially," pro-democracy activist Phyu
Phyu Thin told.
Suu Kyi herself has been locked up for most of the past
20 years and is currently under house arrest at her lakeside
home in Yangon.
PTI
