Reuters-UN official begins visit to

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Subject: Re: Reuters-UN official begins visit to Myanmar Thursday

I feel a great heaviness in me when you reccommend the East Timor
model.  What happened in East Timor is far from satisfactory.  Indonesia
and the TNI were never a willing party to the program for free elections
and were obstructionist to boot. What more, they continue to harass the
UN Forces and wanting to have their lackeys (Malaysia) lead the UN peace
keeping force.

I cannot, at this point support anything that will cause further
bloodshed.  Everything points to the inability of SPDC to talk with NLD
but I do not think we can give up hope that we can make space for the
role of SPDC to enter negotiations with NLD.  We cannot take the liberty
of putting more lives at risk the way it happened in East Timor.

Should a E Timor type of process be accepted then we must insure that
there will not be bloodshed by either side.

There are culprits larger than SLORC/SPDC who provide the incentive for
the continual oppression of the people of Burma. Will they allow their
investments to be thereatened by a free and democratic population? Can
we afford to leave them out of any negotiations knowing that they are
continually influencing the outcomes from the confines of the shadows?
te

Nyi LWin wrote:

> --- TIN KYI <tinkyi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > UN official begins visit to Myanmar Thursday
> > 08:37 p.m Oct 13, 1999 Eastern
> > UNITED NATIONS, Oct 13 (Reuters) - A senior U.N.
> > official begins a visit to
> > Myanmar on Thursday, seeking to promote a dialogue
> > between the Asian
> > country's military government and the opposition,
> > the United Nations said.
>
> A response from the junta will be very clear that the SPDC cannot hold
> dialogue with the NLD. So what will
> the UN do next?
> East Timoe model is the best example for Burma, and I personally
> recomand on that.
>  Alvaro de Soto, an assistant secretary-general for  political
> affairs, who  has visited the country about five times, will  travel
> to the isolated nation as an emissary of Secretary-General Kofi Annan
> and submit a report to the U.N. General Assembly.
> >
> > The Assembly has asked Annan to try and end the country's isolation
> by persuading the government to negotiate with the
> > opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), which is led by
> Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.
> >
> > The assembly has condemned Myanmar, formerly Burma, for severe human
> rights violations ranging from forced labour to torture of prisoners,
> mainly students, professionals and academics.
> >
> > The government earlier this year postponed a visit by De Soto but
> gave no reasons for it. New arrangements were worked out last month
> when Myanmar's foreign minister, Win Aung, attended the annual General
> Assembly debate.
> >
> > De Soto last visited Myanmar a year ago at which time he raised the
> possibility of World Bank development aid if the
> > government initiated a dialogue with the opposition. So far the
> military junta has refused to negotiate with Suu Kyi's party
> > unless she disbands a committee designed to represent parliament, a
> challenge to its rule.
> >
> > The NLD won the country's last election in 1990 but the military
> ignored the results and has since tried to silence the party
> > through arrests and intimidation.