Democracy movement wins Myanmar concessions

Talks with Aung San Suu Kyi bring Myanmar back towards democracy

TAIKKYI, Myanmar -- A small ceremony marked a large step for democracy in Myanmar as a branch office of the party of Nobel-laureate Aung San Suu Kyi reopened.

With Thursday's ceremony came freedom for nine more party members in the latest concesion by the military junta to the pro-democracy opposition.

About 30 members and leaders of the National League for Democracy gathered to fix a signboard on the thatch and bamboo hut that will serve as the party office in Taikkyi town, the Associated Press reported.

"This is an auspicious moment, and the result of the talks between the NLD and the military leaders," said Soe Myint, a member of the party's Central Executive Committee.

It is the first party office allowed to be reopened by the junta since a crackdown in 1998 closed many of the 40 branches in and around the capital, Yangon.

Soe Myint said another branch office is scheduled to reopen Friday in Hmawbi, 15 miles from Yangon. Taikkyi is about 40 miles north of Yangon.

The junta has been holding reconciliation talks for the past 10 months with Suu Kyi while keeping her under virtual detention in her house.

Party chairman Aung Shwe and vice chairman Tin Oo also remains confined.

Details of the talks have not emerged but the junta appears to have been easing the restrictions in recent months. Nine elected representatives of the NLD who were detained in government guests houses were allowed to leave Thursday, an official statement said.

"They are in good health," the statement said, according to A.P.

Thirteen more elected representatives were released in two batches earlier this month, leaving 12 more in detention. About 100 lower-raking members have also been freed since January.

Authorities have also given the NLD permission to reopen 18 branch offices around Yangon, out of which nine will be allowed to put up party signboards. The boards are the only visible symbol of the opposition in a country that remains firmly in the grip of the military, which has been in power since 1962.

The current group of generals came to power in 1988 after crushing a pro-democracy movement in which thousands were killed.

The junta called elections in 1990 but refused to hand over power to the victorious NLD.

The party's call in mid-1998 to unilaterally convene a parliament triggered the government crackdown.