[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index ][Thread Index ]

30.9.97 AP/AFP: NEW ZEALANDER DEPOR



	ASIA: NZ PROTESTS TO BURMA OVER TREATMENT OF DEPORTED CITIZEN
NZ BURMA (CARRIED EARLIER)
   BANGKOK, Oct 2 AFP - Wellington has protested to Burma for 
denying consular help to a New Zealand citizen detained in Rangoon 
after she tried to attend an opposition political congress, the 
ambassador here said.
	   The New Zealand embassy in Bangkok had sent a note of complaint 
to the Burmese embassy over their treatment of Jude Smith, 37, who 
was refused access to diplomatic assistance, New Zealand ambassador 
Adrian Macey told AFP.
	   Smith was picked up by Rangoon authorities on Sunday as she 
tried to gain access to a congress of pro-democrat leader Aung San 
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) at the Nobel 
Laureate's house in the Burmese capital.
	   "On the basis of what she told us we sent a note to the Burmese 
embassy in Bangkok on Thursday. She had been denied access to 
consular assistance after she was detained," said Macey.
	   Smith had "repeatedly asked" the authorities who detained her 
for contact with the British embassy, which handles New Zealand 
consular affairs in Burma.
	   Denying access to this "fundamental right" contravened the 
Vienna Convention, which states that diplomats must be contacted if 
requested, Macey said.
	   New Zealand was awaiting a reply from the Burmese, he added.
	   Smith, who said she was only trying to hold a juggling show for 
the NLD delegates at the meeting, was deported on Sunday by 
authorities who suspected she was an undercover journalist.
	   The Burmese government has denied allegations that she was held 
for hours, saying she was questioned for a maximum of 45 minutes 
before being packed off on a flight to Bangkok.
	   AFP  ts

	PAC: NZ CONCERNED AT WOMAN'S TREATMENT BY BURMA
NZ BURMA
   By Kevin Norquay
	   WELLINGTON, Sept 30, NZPA - New Zealand embassy officials in 
Thailand are concerned a New Zealand woman detained in Burma was 
denied consular assistance.
	   Jude Smith, 37, was picked up by Burmese authorities at the 
weekend. They said her activities did not tally with the profession 
listed in her visa application.
	   Smith, a juggler, said she had been trying to show her craft to 
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, at the congress of the National 
League for Democracy (NLD), Burma's largest political party.
	   The former Auckland television producer said she was "detained, 
harassed, assaulted and deported" by Burma's military junta.
	   Today she met New Zealand embassy officials in Bangkok, 
Thailand, and gave them full report of her treatment.
	   Deputy head of mission Caroline Bilkey told NZPA she was 
concerned the Burmese had appeared to deny Smith consular 
assistance.
	   "If you're detained, you're not able to leave, and you ask to 
see an embassy person you should be able to at least contact an 
embassy," she said.
	   "I understand she did ask to see the British Embassy -- or to 
call the British Embassy -- and she wasn't able to."
	   The British Embassy in Rangoon confirmed Smith had not contacted 
them, Bilkey said. It had only heard of the matter through the 
media.
	   She said the embassy would send a full report to the Ministry of 
Foreign Affairs in Wellington, which would decide what action to 
take.
	   She would not say whether there were other concerns about the 
detention and treatment of  Smith.
	   The embassy had not contacted Burmese authorities, Bilkey said. 
She said its first priority was to talk to Smith. With no embassy 
in Rangoon it was easier to contact Burma in writing.
	   New Zealand has little trade with Burma, and there was "not a 
very substantial relationship" between the two nations.
	   A senior military official in Rangoon said Smith was deported as 
her invitation was not in her name and as her "activity was 
something different from her profession given in her visa 
application".
	   He denied she had been interrogated for hours, saying she had 
been "questioned for a maximum of about 45 minutes" before being 
driven to the airport.
	   "She claimed she had an invitation, but it was not in her name, 
in fact she got it from someone while on the way to University 
Avenue (Aung San Suu Kyi's home)," the Rangoon official said.
	   "More importantly, when she applied for a tourist visa she said 
she was a dance instructor, but her activity last Sunday indicates 
something different," he added, apparently suggesting she was 
working as a journalist.
	   NZPA  ts

	FED: AUSTRALIA WELCOMES BURMA DEMOCRACY CONFERENCE
BURMA AUSTRALIA (CANBERRA)
   Australia has welcomed the decision of Burma's ruling State Law 
and Order Restoration Council to allow last weekend's National 
League of Democracy congress to proceed.
	   Foreign Minister ALEXANDER DOWNER says the decision to allow the 
NLD to hold a congress on this occasion is a positive development.
	   Since May last year, the military regime has stopped or hindered 
three NLD Congresses by detaining party members and supporters.
	   The National League for Democracy was founded in 1988 after the 
government violently crushed an uprising against the military rule 
that's been in effect since 1962.
	   The party won elections held in 1990, but the military put its 
leader, Nobel laureate AUNG SAN SUU KYI, under house arrest for six 
years and has never allowed Parliament to convene.
	   AAP RTV ss/daw/rt

	ASIA: BURMA DEPORTS NZ JUGGLER FOR TRYING TO GATECRASH MEET
BURMA NLD DEPORT
   BANGKOK, Sept 29 AFP - Burma's ruling junta questioned and 
deported a New Zealand juggler after she tried to show off her 
craft to opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, officials and sources 
said today.
	   Jude Smith, 37, was picked up yesterday after she was detained 
while trying to get into the Nobel Laureate's house where a key 
meeting of her party was taking place, Rangoon military officials 
and friends said.
	   Smith, who says she was invited to the politically-charged 
meeting, was detained, quizzed by immigration officials before 
being bundled onto a flight to Thailand along with her fluorescent 
juggling balls.
	   She had been in Burma for two days hoping to arrange a juggling 
spectacular there, similar to shows she has mounted in other parts 
of Southeast Asia, her friend Etain McDonnell said here.
	   But instead of wowing the more than 700 delegates to the 
congress, the first in years held with the blessing of the military 
junta, the juggler was instead "detained, harassed assaulted and 
deported", McDonnell said.
	   "She was taken away by immigration police while being followed 
every step of the way by security police with video cameras, had 
her passport passport taken from her and interrogated for several 
hours."
	   "She was even photographed as she staged an impromptu juggling 
show at as customs officer went through her bags to check out her 
juggling gear," McDonnell said.
	   The National League for Democracy (NLD) congress, which Aung San 
Su Kyi described as the most successful in years, went off without 
incident apart from some supporters being turned away at the gates, 
sources in Rangoon have said.
	   But Smith alleged that despite efforts by the junta to improve 
its international image, that NLD supporters were being "harassed, 
denied entrance, assaulted and detained" by the authorities.
	   A senior military official in Rangoon confirmed Smith was 
deported as her invitation was not in her name and as her "activity 
was something different from her profession given in her visa 
application".
	   He denied she had been interrogated for hours, saying she had 
been "questioned for a maximum of about 45 minutes" before being 
driven to the airport.
	   "She claimed she had an invitation, but it was not in her name, 
in fact she got it from someone while on the way to University 
Avenue," the Rangoon official said.
	   "More importantly, when she applied for a tourist visa she said 
she was a dance instructor, but her activity last Sunday indicates 
something different, " he added, apparently suggesting she was 
working as a journalist.
	   She was first picked up Saturday along with about 50 NLD 
activists attempting to get into the meeting, taken away in a truck 
and dumped about four kilometres, McDonnell said.
	   "After taking pictures of dejected NLD activists walking down 
the road, military officers tried to take her camera," McDonnell 
said.
	   She was detained along with two NLD members when she refused to 
hand it over, taken to a military base and later released.
	   Smith, who runs a festival organising firm, the Serious Fun 
Institute, has staged juggling shows in Thailand, Laos and several 
other Southeast Asian countries.
	   She lives in New Zealand.
	   AFP br