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Burma Ex-Dictator in Indonesia



Burma Ex-Dictator in Indonesia 
Tuesday, September 23, 1997; 1:07 p.m. EDT 
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- Making his first public appearance in eight years, 
Burma's former military dictator Ne Win shook hands and hugged Indonesia's 
President Suharto when the two old friends met for dinner Tuesday night. 
Ne Win ruled Burma with an iron hand for 26 years after overthrowing a 
democratically elected government in 1962. 
Many Burmese believe the 86-year-old Ne Win still exercises control over 
Burma's present military government, the State Law and Order Restoration 
Council, which succeeded him in September 1988, gunning down more than 3,000 
pro-democracy protesters in the process. 
Ne Win flew in from Rangoon on an Indonesian executive jet Tuesday afternoon 
for a brief private visit. 
"We Indonesians are highly appreciative of your dedication and services in 
bringing understanding to our two nations and people," Suharto said through a 
translator at Jakarta's presidential palace. 
Suharto, a former army general who came to power after he crushed an abortive 
communist coup in 1965, has known Ne Win for about three decades. Ne Win 
looked frail and pale as he walked beside the Indonesian leader. 
Suharto praised his guest for helping Burma to join the Association of 
Southeast Asian Nations this year-a move opposed by Western countries critical 
of Burma's poor human rights record. 
Indonesian officials said Ne Win is to visit the grave of Suharto's wife Tien 
in the city of Solo on Wednesday then fly on to Singapore for a routine 
medical checkup Thursday. 
Critics say during his years in power, Ne Win drove resource-rich Burma into 
poverty with an isolationist policy. On July 23, 1988, he stepped down in the 
midst of a nationwide democracy uprising that saw the emergence of Nobel Peace 
Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi as its leader. 
In his final public speech, he warned the demonstrators that "when the army 
shoots, it shoots to hit." 
Chroniclers of the uprising have written that Suu Kyi was placed under six 
years of house arrest after she publicly criticized Ne Win by name.