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Myanmar opposition wants Canada to pressure junta

By Mary Durran

  
MONTREAL, Dec 10 (Reuters) - The head of Myanmar's government in exile
called on Friday for Canada to step up pressure on the Southeast Asian
nation's military rulers to relinquish control of the country. 

``We think Canada could take a stronger position,'' said Sein Win, cousin to
Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. 

Sein Win was forced to flee Myanmar, formerly called Burma, after Suu Kyi's
National League for Democracy won Myanmar's 1990 election, its last, by a
landslide. The military never allowed the party to govern and has tried to
silence it through arrests, intimidation and forced resignations, all of
which have been widely condemned internationally. 

``Ottawa could push the generals to release political prisoners and hold a
political dialogue with the opposition,'' Sein Win told Reuters while
attending the United Nations University-sponsored World Civil Societies
Conference in Montreal. 

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi's house remains under surveillance by
armed military guards and the military junta has refused to allow her to
leave the country or travel freely within it. 

International human rights organisations have said 800 to 1,000 people are
being held as political prisoners in Myanmar. More than 40 elected members
of parliament are still in Rangoon jails. 

Sein Win said there is overwhelming evidence the Burmese junta also has
close ties to the country's drug lords, who produce an estimated 60 percent
of the heroin smuggled into North America. 

Earlier this week, the legislature of the Canadian province of Quebec passed
a motion recognising Suu Kyi and the other imprisoned Myanmar leaders as the
country's legitimate authority. But Quebec does not speak for Canada on
foreign affairs, and Sein Win, who is based in Thailand, said he hopes
Canada will follow the lead of the province. 

``The case is very clear cut,'' he said. ``A government elected by the
people is in prison and the human rights, economic and political situation
deteriorates every day. Why is Canada so reluctant to take further action?'' 

Ottawa already prohibits Canadians from making investments in Myanmar that
would support the military government, which is led by General Than Shwe.
Ottawa has also restricted visits to Canada by high-ranking Myanmar military
officials. 

The military has maintained an authoritarian grip on Myanmar since 1988,
when it put down a public uprising in support of democracy. 

Suu Kyi, who was awarded the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, has been under house
arrest for many years and cannot leave the country. She remains the biggest
thorn in the government's side. 

Officials with Myanmar's government in exile were in Montreal on Friday to
attend a ceremony in which human rights activists Cynthia Maung and Min Ko
Naing were to be awarded the John Humphrey Freedom prize. The Canada-funded
International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development named the
award for the Canadian who prepared the first draft of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, which the United Nations adopted 51 years ago. 

Maung, a 39-year-old physician who has lived and worked in refugee camps
along Thailand's border with Myanmar, will receive the prize on behalf of
student leader Min Ko Naing, imprisoned for the last 10 years. Ko Naing's
speeches, statements and poems were an inspirational force for the 1988
democracy uprising. In 1989, the regime sentenced him to a 20-year jail term
for inciting disturbances. 

18:38 12-10-99