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Wired News on November 17, 1995



Attn: Burma Newsreaders
Re: Wired News on November 17, 1995
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Burma leader asks for support for new constitution
 
     RANGOON, Nov 16 (Reuter) - Burma's leading general on Thursday called on
all Burmese people to support the upcoming national convention process to
draw up a new consitution. 

    Senior General Than Shwe, chairman of the military-led State Law and
Order Restoration Council (SLORC), made the comments in a message read at a
ceremony to celebrate Burma's 75th National Day. 

    ``The people of all the national races are to extend welcome and support
for the success of the national convention at which delegates...are holding
discussions for the emergence of a new state constitution which is essential
for Myanmar (Burma).'' 

    ``A new state constitution will emerge only after a successful convening
of the convention and only after the emergence of a new state constitution a
modern and developed new nation can be established,'' he said. 

    Constitutional talks, which have been intermittent since January 1993,
will resume on November 28 when nearly 700 delegates, most of them
hand-picked by the military, meet to draw up the guidelines for a new
constitution. 

    The SLORC has been ruling since 1988 when it assumed power after
suppressing bloody pro-democracy demonstrations. 

Reut09:35 11-16-95
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Thailand, Burma move to pathch up sour ties

      BANGKOK, Thailand (Reuter) - Thailand and Burma are trying to defuse
tense bilateral relations with high-level visits, but Burmese dissidents said
Tuesday they objected to Bangkok dealing with Rangoon's unelected military
regime. 

    Rear-Adm. Maung Maung Khin, the deputy prime minister of Burma's
military-led State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), arrived here
Tuesday with a 27-member delegation for a five-day official visit. 

    Maung Maung Khin is due to hold talks with Thai Defense Minister General
Chavalit Yonchaiyudh and Prime Minister Banharn Silpa-archa Tuesday. 

    He is the most senior SLORC member to visit Thailand since relations
between the neighbors became strained in March after the Mong Tai Army (MTA)
guerrillas loyal to opium warlord Khun Sa raided the Burmese border town of
Tachilek. 

    After the raid, several guerrillas escaped to Thailand and SLORC accused
Bangkok of sheltering the rebels. Thailand has denied those charges and
claims by Rangoon that the attack began from Thai soil. 

    Since then Burma has closed its border with Thailand. 

    Thai Foreign Minister Kasem Kasemsri, who was in Rangoon over the
weekend, said he told Burma there would be no repeat of a situation where MTA
guerrillas were arrested on Thai soil and allowed to return to Burma without
being disarmed. 

    ``The incident in which Khun Sa's troops were allowed to return to Burma
without being disarmed will not take place again,'' the Bangkok Post
newspaper reported Kasem as saying. 

    Relations worsened in July when Thai fishermen killed four Burmese crew
members in high seas. A new dispute emerged on Nov. 6 when Burmese workers
killed six Thai fishermen at sea before escaping with their trawler. 

Reut11:02 11-14-95
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Suu Kyi says Nehru award for all freedom fighters

      RANGOON, Burma (Reuter) - Burmese democracy leader and Nobel Peace
laureate Aung San Suu Kyi feels the Nehru prize she won for international
understanding is meant for all those who fought for democracy in Burma, her
spokesman said Tuesday. 

    ``She feels that all the awards, including the present one, were
conferred upon her to receive as a representative of all those who took part
in the democracy movement,'' Aye Win, Suu Kyi's cousin and informal
spokesman, told Reuters. 

    Indian president Shankar Dayal Sharma Tuesday presented the Jawaharal
Nehru Award for International Understanding to the 50-year old Burmese
opposition leader, who won the Nobel prize in 1990. 

    Suu Kyi, who lived in India in her childhood when her mother served as
Burmese Ambassador, was put under house arrest in 1989 for her outspoken
criticism of the military which killed or imprisoned thousands during
democracy uprisings. 

    She was released after six years of detention in July. 

    A close personal friend of Suu Kyi's received the award on her behalf,
and she sent a videotape for the awards ceremony, Aye Win said. 

    ``Nehru and Suu Kyi's family have had a very close and friendly relation
since her mother was an Ambassador in India, and he used to look after them
during their stay there,'' he said. 

 REUTER 

Reut10:32 11-14-95
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