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Burma's Suu Kyi urges sanctions.




	Burma's Suu Kyi Urges Sanctions 
	*******************************

        Monday, February 3, 1997 4:53 pm EST 

                          RANGOON, Burma (AP) -- Nobel Peace Prize-winner 
Aung San Suu Kyi appealed
                          Monday for international sanctions against 
Burma's military regime, saying it has arrested
                          scores of pro-democracy supporters since 
quelling a student uprising. 

                          More than 100 people -- double the number 
acknowledged by the government -- have
                          been arrested in the wake of the December 
student protests, including 52 supporters of her
                          National League for Democracy, Suu Kyi said. 

                          After secret trials, Burma announced it had 
sentenced 34 people to seven-year prison terms
                          for fomenting the protests, Burma's most 
significant demonstrations since an uprising against
                          military rule in 1988. 

                          Sanctions are essential given ``large-scale 
repression of the democracy movement,'' Suu Kyi
                          told reporters, who were given a rare chance to 
meet with her in what has been increasing
                          government restrictions on her movements. 

                          Security officials checked journalists' 
identifications before allowing them past the
                          government barricades around the lakeside home 
of Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel
                          Peace Prize for her efforts to bring democracy 
to Burma. Plainclothes officers took
                          photographs of those entering. 

                          Burma's ruling State Law and Order Restoration 
Council, which succeeded an earlier
                          military regime in 1988 after gunning down 
thousands of protesters, has opened the
                          economy to foreign investment after years of 
isolation. 

                          Suu Kyi rejected the argument that foreign 
investment in Burma will raise living standards
                          and freedom. 

                          ``The reason why we want sanctions is because 
what the international investment is doing
                          now is putting more and more money into the 
pockets of a small privileged group, who
                          become more keen on preserving the status 
quo,'' she said. 

                          She also praised the ``great perseverance and 
courage'' of supporters who have gathered at
                          the Shwedagon pagoda, Rangoon's holiest shrine, 
in recent weeks in the vain hope she
                          would appear to speak. 

                          ``We think that every single person who turns 
up for the weekend has 10,000 behind him or
                          her,'' she said. 

                          Inside the compound, about 20 party supporters 
made preparations for a celebration Suu
                          Kyi plans to hold Feb. 12 for Union Day, 
marking a pact signed by anti-colonial leaders
                          against British rule. 

                          Suu Kyi expressed hope that 4,000 to 5,000 
people would come -- more than the regime
                          has allowed her to meet in months. 

                          She faulted the government for the secret 
trials of those accused in the December protests. 

                          ``If the authorities have solid evidence of 
their guilt, they should have no qualms about
                          making the trials public,'' Suu Kyi said. 

                          The U.S. State Department, in its annual human 
rights report issued last week, said that such
                          trials in Burma usually are decided in advance 
and that maltreatment in prison is common. 

                          Burmese Foreign Minister Ohn Gyaw said Saturday 
the report was ``not duly
                          substantiated.'' 

                          The SLORC has curtailed Suu Kyi's movement to 
the extent possible without formally
                          returning her to house arrest. She was freed 
from six years of house arrest in 1995. 

                          The government has refused her calls for a 
dialogue. Suu Kyi's supporters overwhelmingly
                          won democratic elections in 1990, but the 
regime never honored the result. 

[Associated Press, 3 Feb 1997].

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