Reuters 26-AUG-98

YANGON, Aug 26 (Reuters)- Myanmar's military government blocked off the country's most sacred Buddhist shrine on Wednesday on the 10th anniversary of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's maiden speech for democracy, witnesses said.

Security forces closed all entrances to the Shwedagon Pagoda, a magnificent 100-metre golden stupa in the centre of Yangon and fenced of the surrounding area, they said.

Diplomats in the capital said the aim was apparently to prevent attempts to commemorate the 1988 uprising for democracy, which the country's military rulers crushed at a cost of several thousand lives, according to most independent estimates.

Diplomats said the official explanation given for closing the legendary pagoda was "special cleaning." Security policemen armed with batons were stationed at each of its four main gates.

On August 26, 1988, some 700,000 people rallied at the Shwedagon to hear a speech by Suu Kyi, the daughter of Myanmar's assassinated independence hero Aung San.

Suu Kyi, who had returned to Myanmar to nurse her dying mother and had no political track record, called the democracy uprising Myanmar's "second struggle for independence." She went on to become the leader of the movement and was awarded the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize.

Her National League for Democracy won 1990 general elections by a landslide, but the military ignored the results. It has since tried to grind down the opposition through a long campaign of arrests and intimidation, diplomats and dissidents say.

But in recent weeks the opposition has become increasing assertive and last week vowed to call a "People's Parliament" as the military had ignored its demand to do so.

On Tuesday, authorities stationed riot police around the capital to guard against a repeat of protests by university students on Monday, the first such street demonstrations in more than a year.

The protests came the same day as Suu Kyi ended a 13-day roadside protest against restrictions on her movements.

An NLD source said Suu Kyi was being treated by her doctors and her health was improving after the exhausting standoff.

Diplomats said the NLD was likely to wait for Suu Kyi's recovery before proceeding with its pledge to call parliament, something the government has said would be against the law.

On Tuesday the government, which calls itself the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), told foreign military attaches it would not allow the opposition to form a parliament or enter talks with Suu Kyi, a diplomat said.

It argued that Suu Kyi, the NLD general secretary, and Tin Oo, the party's vice chairman, had been officially stripped of their posts in 1990, he said.

The NLD held its first meeting with senior members of the government eight days ago but said afterwards it was informal and did not constitute a "dialogue," which it said could not take place without Suu Kyi.

The ruling generals have long refused to talk to Suu Kyi, who has been the biggest thorn in their side since they took power.