'Freedom for Burma' Protest in Beij

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Subject:       'Freedom for Burma' Protest in Beijing

11 Sep95  -- 13:21 GMT

PROTEST AT BEIJING WOMEN'S MEET AGAINST RULING BURMESE JUNTA  


BEIJING, Sept 11 (Reuter) - Three women staged a brief protest during a 
speech by Burma's official delegation to the world's women's conference 
on Monday, unfurling a red banner demanding freedom for Burma.

The three, two of whom were from Norway and Thailand, unfurled the 
banner during a speech to a plenary session by the senior military 
officer heading the Rangoon military government's delegation to the 
United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing Burma's 
Minister of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Major General Soe 
Myint did not falter in his speech during the protest, which lasted less 
than a minute.

UN security guards in pale blue uniforms quickly gathered up the bright 
red banner that read: "Free the People of Burma", and removed one women 
from the conference hall. The other two disappeared into the crowd.

"We want to show the world that nothing has changed in Burma," said 
protester Katherine Biering of the Norwegian Burma Council in Oslo. She 
accused the military government of continued human rights abuses in 
Burma despite its release last July of Nobel Peace Prize-winner Aung San 
Suu Kyi after six years of house arrest.

"The international community should really know that this man standing 
up here, a general in the Burmese army, and this army is violating human 
rights every day in Burma," she said. Soe Myint addressed the session in 
civilian clothes.

(c) Reuters Limited 1995 REUTER NEWS SERVICE