U Nu Defies 1-Party Rule, Forms Burma Opposition

RANGOON, Burma — Former Prime Minister U Nu defied the one-party constitution today and formed Burma’s first opposition party in 26 years, declaring that his purpose is to end the nation’s turmoil and achieve multi-party democracy.

The new party, named the “Democracy and Peace Organization,” is headed by former President Mahn Win Maung with the 81-year-old U Nu serving as patron.

U Nu said he formed the party “to help solve Burma’s pressing problems and achieve the popular demand for democracy.”

The former prime minister, who was ousted by Gen. Ne Win in a 1962 coup, was allowed to return to Burma in 1980 on condition he confine himself to Buddhist religious studies.

Retired Brig. Gen. Tin U, former armed forces chief of staff, is to serve as general secretary on the party’s 20-member executive committee.

“There are unconfirmed reports of a factional split between hard-liners (in the military) who want to tough it out and those who are supporting Brig. Gen. Tin U,” said a diplomat.

Coup ‘Strong Possibility’

A military coup is a “strong possibility,” the diplomat said.

Reports of anarchy have poured in from around Burma as the socialist government waited out the storm of popular protest and clung to its own timetable for democracy.

Official and unofficial sources reported prison break-outs in at least four towns, looting of rice stores and a breakdown of central control that left Buddhist monks and students running many towns.

“In its truest sense, you are now seeing the dictionary definition of anarchy in some parts of the country,” said one diplomat.

Tens of thousands marched through central Rangoon last week demanding the socialist rulers hand over power immediately to an interim government to prepare for a return to multi-party democracy after a generation of repressive rule.

Chairman Maung Maung and other leaders of the Burma Socialist Program Party (BSPP), who have called an emergency party congress on Sept. 12 to agree to a referendum on scrapping the one-party state, remained silent.

‘Have to Join Forces’

“The emerging opposition figures realize they have to join forces to create a common front. The demonstrators are crying out for leaders,” a Western diplomat said.

Sources close to the new alliance said it would include representatives of ethnic minorities whose 40-year struggle along Burma’s borders have been a major obstacle to stability and economic progress.

One diplomat said the chosen figures are from the older generation who were not connected with Ne Win and appeared to have no personal political ambition.

“It is a list of elders who will form a caretaker administration to temporarily safeguard the interests of the state,” he said.

Burmese sources today reported stronger than usual rumors that Ne Win, who stepped down on July 23 after months of popular demonstrations, had fled or was about to leave the country. They had no confirmation and such rumors have proved false in the past.

Official media said today that police opened fire Sunday on about 80 demonstrators who attacked a police station in Minhala, about 250 miles northwest of Rangoon, killing six people and wounding four.

Rangoon Radio also said today that two prisoners died during a riot Saturday in the central jail of Mandalay, Burma’s second largest city about 400 miles north of Rangoon.