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Burma renews ASEAN bid, faces U.N.
Subject: Burma renews ASEAN bid, faces U.N. rebuke.
Burma renews ASEAN bid, faces U.N. rebuke
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November 28, 1996
Web posted at: 5:00 p.m. EST (2200
GMT)
BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) --
Burma Thursday renewed its bid to
become part of the powerful
ASEAN regional group while the
official media took up cudgels on
the military government's behalf, even dubbing the
United States a
"trouble maker" for criticizing Rangoon's regime.
The media's attack was in reference to a Bangkok
speech by U.S.
President Bill Clinton (187k/16 sec. AIFF or WAV sound)
singling out Burma for failing to recognize a
democratically elected
government. A commentary in Burma's three state-run
papers said
the move was an "evil and dirty plot."
"It is an evil and dirty plot of Ngapwagyi (trouble
maker), hitting
the vulnerable spot to hinder Myanmar's wish to
enter ASEAN
and to make ASEAN nations become disunited.
Ngapwagyi is
implementing this scheme with all-out efforts."
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which
includes
Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand
and Vietnam, has been under pressure from Western
nations and
human rights activists to delay admitting Rangoon to
the group
because of the crackdown.
While Cambodia and Laos are on track to become
full-fledged
members of ASEAN next year, Burma's efforts have
been marred
by its crackdown on the pro-democracy movement led
by Nobel
peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
Burma has detained and released nearly 1,000
supporters of Suu
Kyi in various crackdowns on the democracy movement
since
May.
In New York a key U.N. panel Wednesday rebuked Burma for
suppressing opposition, using forced labor to build
its economy,
torturing prisoners, abusing women and conducting
summary
executions.
In a resolution passed by consensus, the General
Assembly's
social, humanitarian and cultural committee said the
government
should protect and allow free access to Suu Kyi.
Still, there are willing mediators. The
incoming Prime Minister of Thailand,
Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, says he is
close to the Burmese leadership and
will soon travel to Rangoon to
deliver a message.
Chavalit says as Thailand's army
chief, he went to Burma in 1989 and
convinced them to hold elections a year later. But
the results were
never honored by the military.
Suu Kyi's NLD party won nearly 80 percent of the
votes but was
not allowed to form a government.
Burma's minister of planning, David
Abel, said statements about human
rights abuses are rash. "We have
promised the people a democratic
government ... we have the national
convention which is working towards
that goal," he said.
But Suu Kyi's party, NLD, pulled out of that
national convention
because they feared the new constitution would be
written to
ensure continued rule by the military. The military
in response
ordered that the convention process continue without
them.
The next voice to be heard on the situation in Burma
will come on
Saturday, when ASEAN holds its one-day, informal
meeting in
Jakarta, Indonesia.
[CNN, 28 November 1996].
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