MEDIA REPORTS DIVERGENT STORIES ON

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Subject: MEDIA REPORTS DIVERGENT STORIES ON YOKOTA'S BURMA VISIT

MEDIA REPORTS DIVERGENT STORIES ON YOKOTA'S BURMA VISIT

Released by Information Service on Burmese Democracy Affairs (ISBDA) 
October 18, 1995
===============

ISBDA has received conflicting stories from the media in the reports of the
visit to Burma by Professor Yozo Yokota, the UN appointed Human Rights
Rapporteur on Burma issues.

In the Reuter report carried by BurmaNet, Professor Yokota said that he was
hopeful Rangoon's military government would begin talks with the
pro-democracy opposition led by Aung San Suu Kyi. Yokota said, "Dialogue is
not terminated. It's still waiting for an opportunity. I'm hopeful that
something will appear in the near future.'' He added, "I'm very much
encouraged by the fact that both the SLORC and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi are
still showing their willingness to restart, or continue their dialogue."

The Japanese-language media, however, carried quite different stories.
 
In today's issue of the Japanese daily "Chunichi Shimbun," Yokota
reportedly said that restarting the dialogue  is "regarded by both sides as
important for the (Burmese) people." However, " since there are no big
changes in the ways of thinking on either side, we have no alternative but
to just hope a restart of dialogue." 

In the 9 AM news yesterday,  NHK radio reported an even more different
version of Yokota's views. The report said that during the meeting between
Yokota  and General Khin Nyunt in Rangoon,  the general repeatedly
emphasized how much more important economic development was than human
rights. According to that report, there is no possibility in the
foreseeable future of a dialogue being called by Aung San Suu Kyi.

The discrepancy between the reports from Japanese and other media is quite
large. ISBDA reasons that this has happened not by chance but because of
the unclear statement of the original source of the news. It is rather
difficult to assume that Professor Yokota cannot state in Japanese what he
actually means to say. It may be too early to assume that he is merely
using  his diplomatic skills to hide SLORC's ugly human rights record prior
to completing  his regular report to the UN.

ISBDA hopes that the UN Rapporteur will offer his vision for improvement of
human rights in Burma where he has been working for a reasonably long time.
This vision should obviously be based on  international standards of human
rights,  no on the Japanese standards with which he is familiar, nor on
Burmese standards set by the military regime.

Finally, we hope that he will do more than simply  continue  to enjoy his
regular visits to that country, meeting both sides again and again.