Doesn't sound like good news

[tun@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

  U.S. TO ADOPT POLICY OF CONCILIATION WITH BURMESE
  (HLW)
  By ELAINE SCIOLINO
  c.1994 N.Y. Times News Service
  
     BANGKOK, Thailand  Judging the initial results to be ``somewhat
  promising,'' the Clinton administration will take a conciliatory
  approach toward the Burmese military junta in an effort to
  encourage improvements in its human rights record, Secretary of
  State Warren Christopher said on Thursday.
     A recent high-level policy review recommended a strategy of
  trying to engage rather than isolate the government of Myanmar,
  formerly known as Burma, one of the most repressive in the world.
     Earlier this month, Thomas C. Hubbard, a deputy assistant
  secretary of state for Asia, met with Burmese military leaders in
  the capital, Yangon, formerly Rangoon. He was the most senior
  American official to meet with the military leadership since it
  ousted a civilian government and crushed an uprising by democracy
  campaigners in 1988.
     Hubbard was not allowed to visit Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the
  detained Burmese opposition leader, during his visit to Myanmar.
     But at a news conference here in neighboring Thailand, the last
  stop of his 10-day swing through Asia, Christopher called Hubbard's
  mission ``somewhat promising.''
     He noted that a Burmese military official had met twice with Ms.
  Aung San Suu Kyi in recent months and that the Burmese authorities
  had told Hubbard they soon would allow the International Committee
  of the Red Cross to visit hospitals in the country.
     The United States is concerned over the plight of Mrs. Aung San
  Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest since 1989 and who won the
  Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her efforts to promote democracy in
  Myanmar. The military invalidated elections won by her party in
  1990.
     Winston Lord, the assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific
  Affairs, told a group of business leaders at a breakfast meeting on
  Thursday morning that there were some indications that Ms. Aung San
  Suu Kyi might be released, according to someone who attended the
  breakfast.
     It was not clear what those signals were. The Burmese military
  has previously said that it will not free the opposition leader
  unless she agrees to leave Myanmar, a step she has refused.
     The more conciliatory American tone departs from the position
  held as recently as July, when the State Department labeled the
  Burmese military government ``one of the world's worst violators of
  human rights'' and called for more vigorous efforts ``to bring
  pressure to bear upon the regime.''
     The United States cut off all American aid to Myanmar in 1988,
  but still maintains trade links and limited diplomatic ties with
  the country.
     Christopher said on Thursday that Hubbard's mission was ``a step
  that gives us an opportunity to explore whether we should join the
  other nations in this region in trying to improve relations.''
     Thailand and Southeast Asian partners already follow a policy of
  ``constructive engagement'' with the Burmese leadership in the hope
  of persuading them to become more friendly.
     The administration's effort to reach out to Myanmar is
  consistent with recent overtures to other authoritarian
  governments, notably China, in the hope of modifying its behavior
  and preserving the possibility of cooperation in other matters. The
  Clinton administration is mindful that an estimated 60 percent of
  the heroin entering the United States is produced from opium poppy
  grown in Southeast Asia, most of it in Burma.
     At his news conference, Christopher also said that he had told
  Thai leaders on Thursday that he was disappointed that they had
  rejected an American proposal to build a floating military depot in
  Southeast Asia and that he hoped they would eventually change their
  minds.
     Because of the Thai decision, the United States scratched plans
  this month to base a permanent flotilla of up to six supply ships
  in Southeast Asia. Instead, the Joint Chiefs of Staff will
  undertake a broad global review of where the United States should
  permanently base tanks, artillery, and other support equipment
  around the world.
     When the United States first asked Thailand to anchor the ships,
  the response was positive, and Christopher's visit was intended in
  part as a face-to-face expression of gratitude. But the plan was
  attacked both within and without the coalition government as an
  infringement of Thai sovereignty.
     On Thursday, Prime Minister Likphai Chuan and Defense Minister
  Asukmak Wichit told Christopher that they could not fulfill the
  American request because of domestic opposition and because they
  preferred to address such issues through the six-nation Association
  of Southeast Asian Nations.
  
  
  
  <TDAT> NYT-11-17-94 1945EST
  
  
  
  
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