Rocked by Suu Kyi, govt offers her Jackson tapes

Gen Maung Aye, the army commander and one of the top four generals in the ruling state peace and development council, said in a speech to troops reported by official newspapers to that “traitors” were working with foreign powers.“Because of the lack of local support, the puppets are slowly becoming dependent on their foreign masters,” Gen. Maung Aye was quoted as saying in yesterday’s speech. “Synchronising with the masters’ command, they arecommitting various disruptive acts.”

No names were mentioned, but Gen. Maung Aye was clearly referring to Suu Kyi’s standoff and to the 18 activists who were held in custody for a week for distributing leaflets urging Myanmar’s people to remember a failed nationwide uprising against military rule.

Borrowing a tactic from the activists, a pro-government party passed around leaflets at shopping centres and elsewhere in Yangon saying that “18 foreigners and internal traitors are trying to create unrest in the country and instigate the public.”The leaflets said “it was the national duty of citizens to oppose these internal ax-handles.”

The diplomatic frenzy to free the activists overshadowed Suu Kyi’s latest attempted foray into the provinces, where she has been allowed only once to visit a Buddhist monk since being freed from formal house arrest in 1995.