Reuters-Myanmar refuses to receive

[hlaing@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Myanmar refuses to receive U.N. emissary 
01:26 p.m Aug 13, 1998 Eastern 

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Myanmar, which has been cracking down on
opposition leaders, has rebuffed a request by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi
Annan to receive a special emissary to discuss ``current developments,'' a
U.N. spokesman said on Thursday. 

``The response from the prime minister was polite, but stated that there
was no reason for such a rush to visit,'' U.N. 

spokesman Juan Carlos Brandt said. 

Prime Minister General Than Shwe added that the dialogue that the
secretary-general and the Myanmar government had maintained since 1994
could continue when Myanmar's foreign minister was in New York next month
for the U.N. General Assembly. 

``The secretary-general is disappointed by the response,'' Brandt said. 

Annan proposed sending as his special emissary former Malaysian U.N.
ambassador Razali Ismail, who was president of the 1996-977 General
Assembly. 

Police have been preventing Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the
1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner, from visiting supporters. 

On Wednesday she was stopped in her minivan about 20 miles (32 kms) west of
Yangon, the capital, in a repeat of a similar incident in late July that
led to a six-day standoff that was forcibly ended by government security
men. 

Suu Kyi remained marooned in her vehicle on Thursday. 

Her latest trip has intensified pressure on the country's military rulers
and drawn more attention to a demand by her National League for Democracy
(NLD) that the government convene a parliament by Aug. 21 of members
elected at polls in May 1990. 

The NLD swept those elections, but the government ignored the result and
rejected demands for democracy.