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Reuter's news on Nov. 9



Attn: Burma Newsreaders


British official ``optimistic'' on Burma visit

    RANGOON, Nov 9 (Reuter) - The most senior British official to travel to
Burma in over six years said on Wednesday he was optimistic his visit would
help lead to the normalisation of relations between Burma and Western
governments. 
    David Dain, an assistant under-secretary of state in the British Foreign
Office, arrived in Rangoon on Tuesday and was due to meet leaders of Burma's
miltary government before leaving next Friday. 
    He told Reuters he expected positive results from his visit. 
    A British Foreign Office spokesman in London said on Monday that Dain's
visit was in line with European Union policy of ``critical dialogue'' with
the Rangoon junta and it would help London judge if any ``positive
improvement'' had taken place in Burma. 
    The visit comes shortly after the first talks between Burma's detained
dissident leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and junta leaders. Suu Kyi, married to
British academic Michael Aris, has been under house arrest in Rangoon since
July 1989. 
    Last week a U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state, Thomas Hubbard, met
one of the military's most senior leaders, Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt, in
a two-day visit to Rangoon. 
    Hubbard later said he had told the junta that the United States was ready
to enhance cooperation with Burma if it took significant steps to improve its
record on human rights, democracy and narcotics suppression. 
    Failure to make progress in those areas would lead to greater
restrictions in political and economic ties, he added. 
    Hubbard was the most senior U.S. official to visit Burma since the
military's suppression of a 1988 democracy uprising. 
    The United States and Britain have been among the most vociferous critics
of the junta's poor rights record, its suppression of dissent and its failure
to recognise the 1990 election victory for the pro-democracy alliance
co-founded by Suu Kyi. 
    Suu Kyi, daughter of Aung San, the leader of Burma's campaign for
independence from Britain in the 1940s, met junta leader General Than Shwe
and Khin Nyunt for the first time on September 20. 
    Late last month she talked for three hours with Khin Nyunt and two other
senior miitary officials. 
    Rangoon has released few details of the meetings but the second
discussion included Burma's current political and economic situation. 

REUTER
Transmitted: 94-11-09 04:27:37 EST
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Disney Team Warned Away From Burma Airspace

    BANGKOK (Reuter) - A Walt Disney Co film production crew has been warned
they must carefully avoid wandering into Burmese airspace or risk being fired
upon, Thai police said Thursday. 
    The warning came after a Thai army helicopter hired by Walt Disney
Pictures early last week strayed less than two miles into Burmese territory
occupied by Khun Sa, dubbed the warlord of the opium-rich Golden Triangle,
police said. 
    Khun Sa is currently locked in a struggle with the army of the central
Rangoon government over control of the area. 
    The film crew was in the northwestern Thai town of Mae Hong Son to shoot
the movie ``Operation Jumbo Drop,'' police said.     A spokesman for Khun Sa
told Reuters their Muang Tai Army had no intention of harming the filmmakers
if they clearly identified themselves. 
    ``We will never fire on the helicopters of movie teams as long as we know
who they are,'' Khun Sa spokesman Keunsai Jaiyen said. The helicopter was
painted black and carried no identifying marks, police said. 
    Police said they understood that the helicopter had narrowly missed an
attack, but whether from Burmese troops or the guerrilla army they did not
know. 

Reuter/Variety 
Transmitted: 94-11-09 23:03:15 EST