The Nation - Burma spurns calls for

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The Nation
July 30 1998 

Burma spurns calls for Suu Kyi talks

MANILA -- Burma yesterday rebutted the international community's call for
freedom of movement for the National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Aung
San Suu Kyi. 

It also rebuked their call to let US and Japanese diplomats meet Suu Kyi,
who entered the sixth day of her sit-in protest against the military
junta's restriction of her travelling to meet party members outside
Rangoon. 

''At this juncture the meeting is not urgent,'' Burma's Foreign Minister
Ohn Gyaw told a news conference at the end of a week of meetings with other
South East Asian nations and world powers. 

The Asean meeting drew to a close, ironically with the full exercise of
Thailand's controversial proposal of ''flexible engagement'' which was
openly criticised and shot down by other Asean members. 

On Saturday, Filipino Foreign Minister Domingo Siazon openly remarked on
Rangoon's internal affairs, urging the junta to talk with opposition leader
Suu Kyi unconditionally. 

Meanwhile, foreign ministers from New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Japan,
South Korea, the European Union and the United States held a meeting with
Ohn Gyaw on Tuesday asking him to relay the request to his government that
the impasse be resolved and diplomats be allowed to access Suu Kyi on the
highway outside the capital. 

Ohn Gyaw said the junta had refused the request. 

''They [the Burmese authorities] have many means at their disposal to
improve the situation. However, the situation will be resolved step by
step,'' Ohn Gyaw said. 

The European Union and Australia publicly chastised and expressed
displeasure to Burma's refusal to cooperate. 

Wolfgang Schuessel, EU representative and Austrian foreign minister, said
Burma's response was not satisfactory and indicated their unwillingness to
resolve problems with Suu Kyi. 

''We are very disappointed,'' Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer
said sitting next to Ohn Gyaw and looking at him as he spoke at a news
conference. He added another attempt would be made to get permission for
the Western diplomats to see Suu Kyi. 

''I am not very hopeful that we will be able to meet her,'' Downer said. 

Burma is operating a major signals intelligence station at its embassy in
Bangkok and has similar capabilities in Bangladesh and at least one other
overseas diplomatic mission, Jane's Defense Weekly, reported yesterday. 

The station's main targets include international telephone conversations,
facsimile traffic, satellite-telephone transmissions, e-mail messages on
the Internet and radio broadcasts, the respected military magazine said. 

The Bangkok station, controlled by the Directorate of Defense Services
Intelligence, is located in a compound housing the office of Myanmar's
military, naval and air attaches in the diplomatic district, Jane's said. 

There are at least nine antennas on the roof of a five-storey
apartment-style building in the compound, most of them probably ordinary TV
antennas, a high-frequency system and two satellite communications dishes,
the magazine said. It published photographs of two satellite dishes and an
aerial which it said appears to be a high-frequency mast. 

The high-frequency antenna allows the Bangkok station to monitor short-wave
or high-frequency radio broadcasts and the satellite dishes are used to
monitor international telecommunications in Bangkok and the surrounding
area, Jane's said. 


The magazine quoted sources familiar with the intelligence directorate's
operations as saying Burma installed a similar system in neighbouring
Bangladesh. The location of a third signals intelligence station isn't
known with certainty but some sources suspect it may be in Vientiane, Laos,
Jane's said. 



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