YANGON (AFX) - Myanmar's military rulers have added four exiled dissident groups, including US-based organizations and an offshoot of the political party headed by detained Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, to its list of 'terrorist groups', Agence France-Presse reported.
The move comes days before tomorrow's deadline the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) set for the junta to respond to its offer to resume a stalled national reconciliation process legalising the generals' rule.
Myanmar's rulers have accused the four groups of being behind a series of bomb blasts across the country, including the May 7, 2005 attack in the capital Yangon which killed 23 people.
The groups include the NLD (Liberated Area), which is active mostly along the Myanmar-Thailand border, comprising parliamentarians who won seats in the 1990 elections in a landslide. The military refused to recognize the election.
Also listed were the National Coalition Government for the Union of Burma and Federation of Trade Unions of Burma which are based in the United States, and the All Burma Students Democratic Front located on the Myanmar-Thailand border.
Myanmar in Aug 2005 classified the latter three groups plus an ethnic rebel group as 'illegal' organizations.
The updated list of 'terrorist' groups, which was announced in state-media Friday but signed by interior ministry officials two days earlier, can be considered an attempt to lean on the opposition, a prominent politician said.
'As far as I'm concerned, this is just one more instance of keeping up the pressure on the NLD,' Win Naing told Agence France-Presse in Yangon yesterday.
The NLD wants the junta to respond by tomorrow, the Buddhist new year day, to its offer which includes legalizing the military's rule by parliamentary decision once the junta takes steps to convene a parliament.
In a commentary in state media last week, the junta said the NLD should forget the election and instead back the generals' seven-point 'road map' if they want to see a quick transition to what Yangon has called 'disciplined democracy.'
Aung San Suu Kyi has spent most of the past 16 years in detention.
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