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5/11/98:THE AAP NEWS



THE AAP NEWS.
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05/11/98: AP-STRIKING DOWN MASS.BURMA LAW COULD HAVE WIDE IMPACT
06/11/98: AFP-BURMESE MILITARY JUNTA OPPRESS OPPSN.MEMBERS TO RESIGN
06/11/98: DPA-BURMESE JUNTA ALLOWS CHINESE LANGUAGE NEWSPAPER
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US-BURMA US: DECISION STRIKING DOWN BURMA LAW COULD HAVE WIDE IMPACT 
DATE: 16:02 06-Nov-98 
 US: Decision striking down Burma law could have wide impact US BURMA

 By Leslie Miller

 BOSTON, Nov 5 AP - A US judge's decision to strike down a 
Massachusetts law preventing the state government from
 dealing with companies doing business in Burma could 
affect the purchasing laws of 44 states.

 The state expects to decide by tomorrow whether to appeal 
the decision handed down by US District Court Judge Joseph
 Tauro on Wednesday.

 "If this ruling stands, taxpayers and local governments 
around the country will lose the right to decide whether to do business
 that supports brutal regimes like Burma," said Byron Rushing, 
the Boston state representative who wrote the law.

 "If selective purchasing had been banned 10 years ago, 
Nelson Mandela might still be in prison today," Rushing said.

 Tauro ruled that Massachusetts' Burma law "impermissibly 
infringes on the federal government's power to regulate foreign
 affairs".

 The lawsuit was brought by the National Foreign Trade 
Council, which represents major US corporations that it won't name
 for fear consumers will boycott them.

 The legal challenge has been called the first salvo in an 
international battle to eliminate local sanction laws.

 According to Robert Stumberg, law professor at Georgetown 
University, 44 states that have laws for domestic,
 environmental and minority purchasing would be affected if 
the US Supreme Court ultimately upheld Tauro's decision.

 In the United States, 23 cities - including New York, San 
Francisco and Portland, Oregon - have laws prohibiting municipal
 governments from dealing with companies doing business in Burma.

 Arizona, California, Colorado, Kentucky, Nebraska and New 
Hampshire don't have statewide selective purchasing laws.

 Frank Kittredge, NFTC director, said he shares concerns 
about reported human rights abuses in Burma.

 "However, our system of government was not designed to allow 
the 50 states and hundreds of municipalities to conduct their
 own individual foreign policies," he said.

 Burma's military regime has been accused of drug trafficking, 
torture and using slave labor.

 AP jnb 

BURMA-PARTY ASIA: BURMA REPORTS OPPOSITION MEMBERS GIVING UP POLITICS 
DATE: 17:31 06-Nov-98 
 ASIA: Burma reports opposition members giving up politics BURMA PARTY

 RANGOON, Nov 6 AFP - Sixteen members of Aung San Suu Kyi's 
National League for Democracy (NLD) have resigned
 and closed down a party branch office, Burma's official 
media has reported.

 The NLD members in southern Thanbyuzayat township were 
reportedly giving up politics on their own will and closed
 down a party office on October 27, TV Burma and the 
state-run Mirror newspaper reported.

 The politicians informed the government's general election 
commission of their resignations, the reports late yesterday and
 early today said.

 "We give up because we have no desire to continue with the 
NLD's politics," the opposition members said in a statement to
 the official commission, according to the television report.

 The NLD members handed over documents, party noticeboards 
and rubber stamps to the authorities, the report said, adding
 the NLD office in Thanbyuzayat was set up in November 1988.

 The NLD won a sweeping victory in 1990 elections but the 
ruling military council ignored the result and refused to hand
 over power.

 The resignation report comes amid intensifying pressure on 
the NLD and its secretary general Aung San Suu Kyi.

 Hundreds of party members have been detained in recent 
months. About 100 lower-ranking NLD members have been
 released only on condition they renounce their party 
affiliations, according to opposition groups and foreign 
diplomats in Rangoon.

 The detentions began after the NLD issued an ultimatum for 
the junta to convene the parliament elected in 1990 by late
 August. The deadline was ignored and the ruling military 
council branded the move illegal.

 The junta has been holding mass meetings throughout the 
country in recent weeks, gathering state employees and members of
 public associations to hear speakers repeat anti-opposition tirades.

 The rallies routinely condemn the NLD for demanding the 
convening of the parliament and encouraging economic sanctions
 against Burma.

 They also demand the deportation of Aung San Suu Kyi, who 
returned to Burma in 1988 after living in Britain with her
 English husband and two children, and the deregistration of 
the NLD.

 The apparent hardening of the junta's propaganda drive 
against the opposition follows harsh criticism from the international
 community of human rights violations in the country and 
calls for genuine political dialogue.

 AFP jnb 

BURMA CHINESE

 RANGOON, Nov 6 DPA - Burma, in an apparent bid to enhance 
Sino-Burmese relations, this week launched the first
 Chinese-language newspaper to be published locally in 
more than three decades, news reports said.

 Advertisements for the Burma Morning Post began to 
appear in the local Rangoon media last Sunday, and the 
first edition of the newspaper was available yesterday, 
residents in the capital said.

 According to Bangkok's The Nation newspaper the Chinese-
language weekly was spear-headed by prominent Chinese
 residents in Rangoon who saw the paper as an instrument 
to strengthen relations between Burma and China.

 All newspapers in Burma are government-owned and 
tightly controlled by the military regime that has ruled 
the country since 1962.

 DPA
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