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BURMESE RULERS FACE EXPIRATION OF D
- Subject: BURMESE RULERS FACE EXPIRATION OF D
- From: tun@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 12 Dec 1994 17:30:00
Subject: BURMESE RULERS FACE EXPIRATION OF DISSIDENT'S DETENTION
BURMESE RULERS FACE EXPIRATION OF DISSIDENT'S DETENTION
(th)
By PHILIP SHENON
c.1994 N.Y. Times News Service
BANGKOK, Thailand The Burmese generals who run Myanmar face a
momentous decision in the next few weeks: whether to release the
country's Nobel Prize-winning dissident leader when the detention
order expires next month, more than five years after she was placed
under house arrest, or to face a new round of international
condemnation by continuing to hold her.
* Foreign diplomats in Myanmar, formerly Burma, say there are
signs to suggest that the dissident leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,
is negotiating a deal with the military that would result in
freedom for her and for many imprisoned supporters.
Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, the Oxford-educated daughter of Myanmar's
independence hero and the most popular political figure in the
country, has met at least twice this fall with the junta's leaders.
The meetings were an important concession by the military given
its earlier description of Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, who won the 1991
Nobel Peace Prize for her campaign to restore democracy to her
homeland, as a dupe of Burmese Communists.
Diplomats say there are also widespread reports from Burmese
that Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi was allowed to meet with two of her
detained colleagues last month.
If the reports are true diplomats say it is impossible to
confirm them it would have been her first meeting with any of her
Burmese supporters since she was put under house arrest in July
1989 in the midst of a violent crackdown on the democracy movement.
``The signs are very promising,'' said a Western diplomat in
Yangon, the capital, formerly Rangoon. ``It's Kremlinology to a
large extent, but clearly the generals want to reach an agreement
that will end this country's status as a pariah. And the only way
to do that is to free Suu Kyi.''
The junta put Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest on July
20, 1989, describing her as a threat to public order. She was held
under a law that allowed the government to confine a prisoner for
as long as three years. The law was later revised to allow her to
be held for two more years. Reinterpreting the law, the junta
extended the detention last year by six months, a period that would
end on Jan. 20, 1995.
Diplomats say the junta could justify holding Mrs. Aung San Suu
Kyi beyond next month only if it rewrote the law, a decision that
would outrage foreign governments just as the junta is making
substantial progress in attracting foreign investment and even some
diplomatic support. Such a decision would also enrage millions of
Burmese after the junta had raised the public's hopes that Mrs.
Aung San Suu Kyi would be freed.
In October, the United States sent its highest-level delegation
to Myanmar since 1988, when thousands of Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi's
supporters were killed in a military crackdown on the democracy
movement.
The head of the delegation, Thomas C. Hubbard, deputy assistant
secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs, said he had
told the Burmese military that the United States was prepared to
``move forward aggressively'' in improving ties between the two
countries if there were political reforms.
As a protest over its human rights record, Washington has no
ambassador in Myanmar and has vetoed aid through the World Bank and
the International Monetary Fund.
In her only interview in five years, Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi said
in February that she was prepared to negotiate with the junta and
was open to discussing any issue except that of her departure
from Myanmar.
She has said she will refuse to leave the country. The junta had
offered to allow her to go free if she agreed to leave and not
return for five years.