Wired News on July 7, 1995

[FreeBurma@xxxxxxx]

Attn: Burma Newsreaders
Re: Wired News on July 7, 1995
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Sri Lanka Monks, Politicians in Burma Protest

      COLOMBO, July 7 (Reuter) - Scores of Sri Lankan Buddhist monks and
politicians protested outside the Burmese embassy in Colombo on Friday,
demanding Rangoon restore democracy and free Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung
San Suu Kyi from house arrest. 

    The protesters, called the Movement for Democracy in Burma, presented a
petition to embassy officials demanding the government elected in 1990 polls
be allowed to take office and called for the release of all political
prisoners. 

    The movement was formed in 1993 after a visit by leading Burmese Buddhist
monks, who oppose the country's ruling State Law and Order Restoration
Council (SLORC). 

    The Burmese monks had mobilised support among their Sri Lankan
colleagues, a spokesman for the movement said. 

    On Thursday, parliament passed a private members' motion calling for the
release of Suu Kyi and the restoration of democracy in Burma. 

    Speakers called Suu Kyi the Nelson Mandela of the east and referred to
the historic links between Sri Lanka and Burma. 

    But one parliamentarian, Tilak Karunaratne of the United National Party,
said the motion would be counter productive at a time when he argued the
military-run Burmese government was opening up politically and economically. 

    Suu Kyi, Burma's leading dissident, rose to prominence in 1988 when she
emerged as the charismatic leader of the opposition in pro-democracy
uprisings. 

    The National League for Democracy, which she co-founded and led before
her detention, swept more than 80 percent of the seats in May 1990 elections
but SLORC ignored the result and launched a crackdown on all opposition to
military rule. 

REUTER
**********************************

Thai Police Seize Burmese Opium Rebels' Explosives

      COLOMBO, July 7 (Reuter) - Scores of Sri Lankan Buddhist monks and
politicians protested outside the Burmese embassy in Colombo on Friday,
demanding Rangoon restore democracy and free Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung
San Suu Kyi from house arrest. 

    The protesters, called the Movement for Democracy in Burma, presented a
petition to embassy officials demanding the government elected in 1990 polls
be allowed to take office and called for the release of all political
prisoners. 

    The movement was formed in 1993 after a visit by leading Burmese Buddhist
monks, who oppose the country's ruling State Law and Order Restoration
Council (SLORC). 

    The Burmese monks had mobilised support among their Sri Lankan
colleagues, a spokesman for the movement said. 

    On Thursday, parliament passed a private members' motion calling for the
release of Suu Kyi and the restoration of democracy in Burma. 

    Speakers called Suu Kyi the Nelson Mandela of the east and referred to
the historic links between Sri Lanka and Burma. 

    But one parliamentarian, Tilak Karunaratne of the United National Party,
said the motion would be counter productive at a time when he argued the
military-run Burmese government was opening up politically and economically. 

    Suu Kyi, Burma's leading dissident, rose to prominence in 1988 when she
emerged as the charismatic leader of the opposition in pro-democracy
uprisings. 

    The National League for Democracy, which she co-founded and led before
her detention, swept more than 80 percent of the seats in May 1990 elections
but SLORC ignored the result and launched a crackdown on all opposition to
military rule. 

REUTER
***************

-----------------------------------end. (fb707.wire)