Burma Says Peace Prize Winner Faces ‘Destruction’

Burma’s military government said Tuesday that Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi is a traitor conspiring with Western governments and will be destroyed.

“Looking back at history, all traitors who tried to challenge or oppose the (Burmese) military are doomed to face failure and destruction,” said an article in the state-run press.

Press commentaries, usually written by high-ranking intelligence officers using pen names, have called Suu Kyi a traitor before. But this commentary appeared to go a step further by speaking of “destruction.”

Threats by the military aren’t taken lightly by the Burmese opposition. Suu Kyi’s motorcade was attacked Nov. 9 by a mob that witnesses said was organized and paid by the government.

The government has denied the charge.

The military has been blaming Suu Kyi, who leads Burma’s democracy movement, and her political party for last week’s student demonstrations. The military has confined Suu Kyi to her home since the protests began.

The students, who took to the streets of Rangoon and Mandalay in the largest show of dissent since the democracy uprising of 1988, denied any links to Suu Kyi or her party, although some of their goals were the same.

The students seek an end to police brutality, the right to form a student union and more civil liberties. Some called for democracy in Burma, which has been ruled by military regimes since 1962.

“Suu Kyi and her colleagues are instigating unrest in order to create anarchy in the country,” Tuesday’s commentary said.