Military-ruled Burma's state media on Thursday warned citizens against inciting protests as the country awaited a verdict in the trial of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The official New Light of Burma newspaper said in a comment piece that cautioned against anti-government factions that "we have to ward off subversive elements and disruptions".
"Look out if some arouse the people to take to the streets to come to power. In reality they are anti-democracy elements, not pro-democracy activists," the English-language article said.
Nobel laureate Suu Kyi faces up to five years in jail when a prison court passes judgment on Friday on charges that she breached the terms of her house arrest by sheltering an American intruder who swam to her house
Security has been tight for all the hearings, with memories still fresh in Burma of massive anti-junta protests led by Buddhist monks in 2007 which ended in a bloody crackdown.
A conviction is widely expected in the trial, which has sparked international outrage. Critics say it is a ploy by the regime to keep Suu Kyi locked up until after elections scheduled for 2010.
The editorial said "people who are serving their prison terms do not have the right to vote or to stand for election".
The newspaper also launched an apparent attack on Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, which won the country's last elections in 1990 but was prevented from taking power by the ruling generals.
It said that "a handful of politicians with excessive greed, anger and conceit are troubling the people, and millions of people are impoverished. The people... are waiting for the time they mend their ways".
The article denied that the military government was "power-craving," saying it would not have called the elections next year or held a referendum on the constitution in 2008 if that was the case.
The referendum was held just days after a cyclone devastated the south of the country, killing 138,000 people.
On Wednesday the newspaper warned against predictions of a guilty verdict in the trial and said that anticipating Friday's ruling would amount to contempt of court.
Supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi have stood resolute through two decades of resistance to Burma's junta -- but fears of a guilty verdict in the trial of their icon are proving too much for some.
Many female members of the National League for Democracy (NLD) wept at the party's headquarters after the court announced that it would pass judgement on Suu Kyi at the end of the week, party sources and witnesses said.
"We cried as we really sorry for her in our heart. But we will remember her words that we should 'hope for the best and prepare for the worst'," Aye Aye Mar, a senior NLD party member, told AFP.
"We felt so sad when we heard the verdict will come. Our leader is always thinking for the benefit of the country. Although we know that the truth will come out one day, we can't do anything apart from pray for her release."
With many of its senior members behind bars, in ill health or simply old, the NLD's Suu Kyi has, more than ever, become the figurehead for peaceful resistance to the army's 47-year rule over the impoverished country.
She still inspires a devoted following some 21 years after taking the helm of the party, despite some questions among exiled activists and in the foreign media about her continued relevance, particularly her insistence that western nations should continue damaging sanctions against Burma.
Another Suu Kyi supporter, a 50-year-old housewife who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP that she blamed the American for the troubles faced by Suu Kyi.
"The US man is the one who should be blamed for causing this problem," she said.
"We do not understand very well about the law. But we feel pity for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi as she is the daughter of our late leader Bogyoke (General) Aung San."
Suu Kyi's father, Aung San, was the country's independence hero. He was assassinated in 1947.
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