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U.S. SAYS "SLORC ARRESTS SHOW REGIM



Subject: U.S. SAYS "SLORC ARRESTS SHOW REGIME'S INHUMANITY"


06:29 p.m May 21, 1997 Eastern 

WASHINGTON, May 21 (Reuter) - The United States said on Wednesday Burma's
arrest of
some 50 senior opposition figures demonstrated the ``perfidious and inhumane
nature'' of the
Asian country's military government. 

An official of Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for
Democracy said in
Rangoon on Wednesday the arrests had been carried out ahead of a May 27
celebration of the
party's 1990 election victory, ignored by the government. 

``This is yet one more example of the perfidious and inhumane nature of the
Burmese regime,'' said
State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns. ``It's another reason why we
don't think that
Burma ought to be treated as a normal country.'' 

U.S. President Bill Clinton imposed sanctions on Burma on Tuesday because of
``serious abuses''
by the government against political opponents. He also complained about the
flow of illegal drugs
through Burma. 

The sanctions ban U.S. citizens from entering into contracts involving
economic development of
resources in Burma or purchasing ownership shares in developing resources or
helping non-U.S.
citizens wishing to perform activities forbidden under the ban. 

Burns said the aim of the sanctions was to ``convince the Burmese government
that they're going
to be more and more isolated by the United States if they continue this
inhumane treatment of their
own people.'' 

Burns said Washington believed that in recent months more than 100 people
had been arrested for
supporting protests in Burma, and that several hundred political prisoners
remained in detention,
including 29 members of parliament elected in 1990. 

In at least 32 instances, members of parliament had been pressured by the
government to
renounce their electoral mandates, he added. ^REUTER@