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Support for CRPP quickly follows ap



Subject: Support for CRPP quickly follows appeal

BRITISH COLUMBIA LAWMAKERS TO SUPPORT CRPP
BurmaNews - BC:  December 2, 1998

Warm welcome for exiled prime minister in BC legislature

VICTORIA  -- Members of British Columbia's Legislative Assembly have
responded warmly and positively to the call to support the Committee in
Representation of the People's Parliament (CRPP).

The appeal issued by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi on Monday was delivered to them
in person the next day by Prime Minister-in-exile Sein Win of the National
Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB) when he visited BC's
legislature.

Dr Sein Win told a luncheon of MLAs from the three leading political
parties of the arrest of scores of MPs elect and hundreds of political
party members in Burma.  He said the arrests had come in response to a move
by the National League for Democracy (NLD) to convene Burma's parliament,
"the most legal body in the country".  He asked the MLAs to take a stand on
behalf of  their fellow parliamentarians under illegal detention and to
show their support for the committee set up to represent Burma's
legislature in the present emergency.

Later, Dr Sein Win and U Bo Hla Tint, Minister for North and South American
Affairs of the NCGUB, were formally presented at a sitting of the BC
legislature.

They also met with BC Premier, Glen Clark in company with a group of
delegates from the Burma community in Vancouver.   The premier, who spent
over 45 minutes with the delegation, told the group that Burma's MPs
deserved the admiration, respect and support of parliamentarians
everywhere.  He also pledged to press Canada's federal government to
stiffen sanctions against Burma's military regime.

Deputy speaker of BC the legislature, William Hartley, whose interest in
Burma led to the invitation to visit the provincial lawmakers, indicated
that drafting of a resolution could be expected to follow.  He was
confident that it would have bi-partisan support from all parties in the
House.

For his part, Dr. Sein Win pledged that when democracy was restored to
Burma, immediate and concerted efforts would be made to halt the export of
heroin from his country.  

During their four-day visit to BC, the two ministers were taken on a tour
of skidrow in the port city of Vancouver and observed at first hand the
street sale of the illegal drug and its pathetic victims crowded into cheap
rooming houses and rundown hotels.  About 200 people a year die from
overdosing heroin in Vancouver alone.  The city serves as a key
distribution point for the drug to all parts of North America.

Speaking to reporters after walking the streets, Dr Sein Win said the trade
in drugs from Burma's Golden Triangle poppy fields had been allowed to run
out of control by the military regime.

"The root of the problem are the political problems.  Without changing the
regime in Burma we cannot hope to solve the [heroin] supply side," he said.
 "Not only does it cost money for the Canadian government and taxpayers,
the human tragedy is there to see, also." 

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