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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