YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and 19 members of her party were detained after her supporters clashed with pro-government crowds in northern Myanmar, a military official said Saturday.

Brig. Gen. Than Tun said the main office of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy in the capital Yangon was temporarily closed and that some party leaders had been put under house arrest.

The clashes late Friday began when Suu Kyi’s motorcade entered the northern town of Dipeyin, where about 5,000 people opposed to her were waiting in the streets, Than Tun said. The fight lasted for about two hours until police intervened, he said.

The crowds were angered by Suu Kyi’s recent negative comments about the military government, Than Tun said.

He said four people were killed in the fighting and 50 injured but that Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, and her supporters were unhurt. He denied reports that her car was shot at.

“For their own security they are now under temporary protective custody,” Than Tun told a press conference.

The military has ruled Myanmar, also known as Burma, for 40 years. The current junta called elections in 1990 but refused to hand over power when Suu Kyi’s party won by a landslide.

Suu Kyi is on a monthlong tour of the north. She was expected to return to Yangon on June 4, two days before a United Nations envoy arrives to try to restart a reconciliation process between the junta and her pro-democracy movement.

Earlier, witnesses speaking on condition of anonymity said that about 10 plainclothes police officers had entered Suu Kyi’s party headquarters, sealed the keyhole of a lock on the front gate and tied a rope around it.

They said the officers took photographs of the locked entrance, and that about 20 police were posted outside the residence of party spokesman U Lwin.

An NLD party flag, customarily flown beside a Myanmar flag above the headquarters, had been taken down by late Saturday.

Suu Kyi was released from house arrest in May after 19 months. Her release raised hopes of an end to Myanmar’s long political stalemate, but Friday’s violence, which followed weeks of rising tensions, cast further doubt on chances that her party and the country’s military rulers can overcome their differences and negotiate a return to civilian rule.

The government has accused Suu Kyi’s supporters of assaulting “peaceful” protesters and causing public panic during her monthlong tour of the north.

In an earlier incident, Suu Kyi’s supporters say a pro-junta group intimidated them and threatened to run over people lining the road waiting to greet her near the northern town of Mandalay on May 25.

AP-ES-05-31-03 0957EDT

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