SLORC tells US to stop calling "Bur

[FreeBurma@xxxxxxx]

Subject: SLORC tells US to stop calling "Burma"

 .c Kyodo News Service  

KUALA LUMPUR, July 29 (Kyodo) - Myanmar Foreign Minister Ohn Gyaw has
criticized U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright for continuing to use
the old name of Burma when referring to his country, an ASEAN official told
Kyodo News. 

Ohn Gyaw told Albright that he would call the United States ''Old Mexico'' if
she insisted on calling Myanmar ''Burma,'' according to the official who
witnessed the exchange. 

Philippine Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon on Tuesday confirmed that Ohn
Gyaw expressed irritation at those who continued to call the country by its
old name. 

The country's official name at the United Nations is the Union of Myanmar. 

Siazon said it is ''a matter of courtesy'' to use a country's proper name in
the political arena, ''if you want cooperation from that country.'' ''You can
call 'Peter the Great' 'Peter the Devil,' 

but at least call him by his name,'' he said. 

Ohn Gyaw made the protest Sunday at multilateral security talks between the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its dialogue partners, in
which Albright among others, vigorously criticized Myanmar's ruling junta for
alleged human rights violations, drug production and suppression of the
democratically elected National League for Democracy (NLD). 

The junta, which took power in a coup in September 1988, subsequently changed
the name of the country to Myanmar from Burma, the name used under British
colonial rule as well as after the country gained independence in 1948. 

The United States and some other Western countries do not use the name
Myanmar, since NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of murdered
independence hero Gen. Aung San, does not recognize the name change and
continues to refer to her country as Burma. 

AP-NY-07-28-97 2339EDT