AP-Tape of Myanmar Leader Smuggled

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Subject: AP-Tape of Myanmar Leader Smuggled Out

Wednesday May 12 7:57 PM ET

Tape of Myanmar Leader Smuggled Out

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Military-ruled Myanmar is like a ``battlefield''
where human rights are constantly abused, pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu
Kyi said in a videotape released Wednesday.

The videotape was smuggled out of Myanmar and is due to be played at a
four-day conference on promoting world peace that began at The Hague,
Netherlands, on Wednesday.

``A battlefield is not necessarily a place where people are shooting at each
other,'' the Nobel Peace laureate said in the tape.

``In civil society where basic human rights are ignored, where the rights of
the people are violated every day, it is like a battlefield where lives are
lost and people are crippled,'' Suu Kyi said.

The authorities in Myanmar - also known as Burma - suppress almost all
political opposition. Troops patrolled the capital last year to stop planned
demonstrations.

Hundreds of members of Suu Kyi's party have been detained. The army has
frequently been accused of brutality and murder in ethnic areas. Suu Kyi
herself lives in circumstances akin to house arrest.

``When we talk of peace we cannot avoid talking about human rights,
especially in a country like Burma where the people are troubled constantly
by the lack of justice, by the lack of peace,'' she said.

``In our country there are many different races living together but we have
not been able to live together in peace because the situation does not exist
where we can trust each other.''

Myanmar has been run by the military for decades. In 1990 the junta refused
to recognize elections that gave Suu Kyi's party a landslide victory.

The Hague Appeal for Peace Conference, commemorating the 100th anniversary
of the First International Peace Conference, is part of a ``major
end-of-century campaign dedicated to the delegitimization of war and the
construction of a culture of peace,'' according to organizers.

The conference is scheduled to launch several mass political campaigns on a
number of issues, including campaigns against child-soldiers and small arms,
and for a convention banning nuclear weapons.