BURMA ANGERS NEIHBORS [D [D [D [D [

[NBH03114@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: BURMA ANGERS NEIHBORS [D [D [D [D [D [D 

ERRORS-TO:INET:strider@xxxxxxxxxxx
FROM:NBH03114@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Burmese Relief Center--Japan
DATE:February 25, 1995
TIME: 9:07PMJST
SUBJ:BURMA'S DRIVE ON REBELS ANGERS
NEIGHBORS

By Michael Richardson
International Herald Tribune
Wednesday, February 22, 1995

SINGAPORE -- The military regime in Burma is very
likely to face growing international pressure to halt
attacks against its opponents and to carry out
democratic reforms after its capture Tuesday of the last
major stronghold of guerrillas on the Burmese-Thai
border.  

Continuing an offensive against lightly armed soldiers
of the Karen ethnic minority who want greater
autonomy, Burmese forces occupied the rebels'
Kawmoora base in eastern Burma after an intense
artillery bombardment, Thai military officers said.

(The Karen contended that Burmese troops fired
chemical shells in their final assault on the camp,
Reuters reported.  Thailand said its military was
investigating the accusation.)

The offensive prompted protests from a number of
countries, including Australia, Thailand and the United
States, and is the junta's first sustained military
campaign since 1992, when it stopped its fight against
the Karen and their pro-democracy allies in the
interests of national reconciliation.

The junta, the State Law and Order Restoration
Council, took power after ruthlessly suppressing a pro-democracy uprising in 1
988.

The regime ignored the outcome of elections held with
its approval in 1990.  The opposition National League
for Democracy won the elections by an overwhelming
majority.

The military had earlier placed the opposition leader
and winner of the 199 1 Nobel Peace Prize, Daw Aung
San Suu Kyi, under house arrest.

Following talks with officials in Thailand, Malaysia
and Brunei, Gareth Evans, Australia's foreign
minister, said Tuesday that there was "widespread
disappointment" at Rangoon's reversal of its
conciliatory negotiation strategy.

In an apparent reaction to the Burmese regime's
intensifying military offensive and intrusions by its
troops into Thai territory, Bangkok recently called off
a high-level meeting with the junta.

On Friday, Supachai Panichpakdi, a Thai deputy
prime minister, postponed indefinitely a planned visit
to Rangoon that was to have started Feb. 27.

The announcement followed the postponement of a
visit to Thailand by Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt, a
Burmese military leader, scheduled for late this month.

Thailand has been a leading advocate at the
Association of South East Asian Nations of a policy of
"constructive engagement" toward Burma.

The other members of ASEAN are Brunei, Indonesia,
Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore.

The constructive engagement policy is based on the
notion that the best way to reform a repressive regime
is to open it more widely to foreign trade, investment,
influence, and diplomatic contacts.

But human rights groups and other critics say that the
approach has only strengthened the junta's hold on
power and encouraged it to defy international pressure
for reform.

Mike Jendrzejezyk, director of the Washington office
of Human Rights Watch Asia, said that the Burmese
military offensive had"shaken the confidence" of some
leaders of Thailand's civilian government, making
them "question quite openly the policy of constructive
engagement."

Blas F. Ople, chairman of the foreign relations
committee in the Philippine Senate, said that ASEAN's
approach has helped to perpetuate repressive
government in Burma.

The policy "makes us fellow conspirators of the jailers
of Aung San Suu Kyi in Rangoon," he added.

Mr. Evans, the Australian foreign minister, said that
unless the junta returned to a policy of reconciliation
with its domestic opponents, he would press for a
tougher approach toward the regime when foreign
ministers from 18 Asian and Pacific nations, including
the United States, and representatives of the European
Union meet in Brunei in July.

Mr. Evans said that the group, known as the ASEAN
Security Forum, should make closer relations with
Burma conditional on improvements in civil and
political rights there.

He said such improvements should include the release
of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi by July, when her legal
detention expires; ;the freeing of other political
prisoners; concrete moves toward democracy, and a
halt in military operations against opponents.

Mr. Evans said it was important that "no rewards be
given" to the junta "by the international community"
or its neighbors unless some of those conditions were
met.