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Subject: [theburmanetnews] BurmaNet News: August 30, 2000
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______________ THE BURMANET NEWS ______________
An on-line newspaper covering Burma
_________August 30, 2000 Issue # 1609__________
INSIDE BURMA _______
AFP: Aung San Suu Kyi enduring "deplorable" conditions, party says
NLD: "Food and water supply is running short"
REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL _______
Reuters: British Conservatives want tougher line on Myanmar
AP: Suu Kyi gets more world support in clash with military rulers
Asian Age: India & Burma Will Meet Again
AFP: Nepal denounces Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi standoff
United Nations: Sec Gen's Expression of Concern for well being of
Aung San Suu Kyi
OPINION/EDITORIALS _______
Washington Post: In a Field in Burma
LA Times: Myanmar: A Test Case for U.S. Principles
The Statesman (India): Why? Why? Why?
The BurmaNet News is viewable online at:
http://theburmanetnews.editthispage.com
__________________ INSIDE BURMA ____________________
AFP: Aung San Suu Kyi enduring "deplorable" conditions, party says
YANGON, Aug 30 (AFP) - Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is being
subjected to "deplorable" conditions during her roadside test of
wills with Myanmar's military, her party said Wednesday.
Aung San Suu Kyi and a dozen supporters have spent a week camped in
their vehicles in countryside outside Yangon after being stopped
Thursday as they tried to reach a meeting of the party's youth wing.
"The place is full of mud and slush and is infested with poisonous
animals and insects and totally unprotected from the vagaries of
weather," the National League for Democracy (NLD) said in a
statement.
"We condemn this unlawful action and urge that Aung San Suu Kyi and
her companions be allowed to go on their legitimate business."
Myanmar's generals are coming under mounting pressure to resolve the
week-long standoff, and
are showing signs of becoming increasingly irritated at the affair.
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan Tuesday urged the junta
to find a swift and peaceful resolution.
The situation "underlines the necessity for national reconciliation"
and the two sides must "engage as soon as possible in a substantive
political dialogue," he said through a spokesman.
The NLD said that no matter how bad the situation became, their
leader was committed to forcing the junta to lift its ban on her
travelling outside the capital.
Apart from their cars, the group has only a collection of tarpaulins
and umbrellas to shelter them from the monsoon rains and there were
complaints over the weekend that they were running out of food and
water.
The opposition has said Aung San Suu Kyi would refuse medical help
offered by the authorities, and US officials said they had learned
she was refused access to her own physician.
The 55-year-old Nobel laureate's last attempt to test the military's
restrictions, in August 1998, ended after 13 days when she became ill
and dehydrated.
Myanmar's government had been warned by the international community
that it would be held accountable for her safety during the stand-off
on the outskirts of Dallah township.
But diplomatic observers said that while conditions were extremely
uncomfortable, the situation was more relaxed than during the August
1998 confrontation on a bridge outside Yangon, and that could mean a
lengthy confrontation is in the offing.
The group is able to move around Dallah and take deliveries of food
and water, and are so far all
in good health. Aung San Suu Kyi has been seen leaving the car for
short walks.
"The more the status quo remains, the more it will work in favour of
Aung San Suu Kyi as this will mean more supportive reaction from
outside," one diplomat told AFP.
Witnesses who reached the area where the group's two vehicles are
parked under military guard said that the encampment had been
improved and bamboo struts were used to turn tarpaulins into
makeshift tents.
The government insists the group was stopped for its own safety in
an area where it faced attack by "armed insurgent groups" -- a claim
that has been dismissed by foreign governments and the NLD.
The junta has also unleashed a barrage of criticism at the
opposition leader, accusing her of sabotaging the nation's economy
and harming ordinary workers.
Thailand's Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan said the Myanmar
government's latest row with Aung San Suu Kyi would damage confidence
in Southeast Asia as a whole if it was not resolved quickly.
Myanmar exile students living in a refugee camp outside Bangkok said
they would go on a hunger strike as a gesture of support for Aung San
Suu Kyi's battle.
"Fifty of us will go on hunger strike and more than 200 will sit
outside the administration buildings today to show our solidarity
with Aung San Suu Kyi," spokesman Then Oo told AFP.
The NLD claimed victory in 1990 elections but was denied power by
the military which has controlled the country in one guise or another
for the past four decades.
____________________________________________________
NLD: "Food and water supply is running short"
National League for Democracy
No: (97/B), West Shwegonedine Road
Bahan Township, Rangoon
Statement 137 (8/00) (translation)
1. The NLD Deputy Chairman U Tin Oo, General Secretary Daw Aung San
Suu Kyi,
and Rangoon Division Organizing Committee Chairman U Soe Myint
continue to
be illegally impeded and blockaded under orders of the military
anashins on
the Twante Road just outside Dala. Food and water supply is running
short.
2. We request the Dala NLD members, the townspeople and residents of
neighboring villages to take food and water to these honorable
persons in
their hour of need.
Central Executive Committee
National League for Democracy
Rangoon
25 August 200
National League for Democracy
No: (97/B), West Shwegonedine Road
Bahan Township, Rangoon
Statement 138 (8/00) (translation)
Letter number 057/see (chan)/00 dated 25 August 2000 from the
Chairman of
the NLD to the Chairman of the SPDC is published for the information
of the
public.
Start " Subject - An emphatatic declaration disapproving the
illegal,
unjust blockade
forced on NLD Deputy Chairman U Tin
Oo,
General Secretary Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi, Rangoon Division
Organizing Committee
Chairman U Soe Myint, and members of
the
youth wing.
1. The honorable persons mentioned in the subject left Dala (on the
other
shore from Rangoon) at about 1900 hours in the morning of the 24
August 2000
to conduct organizational matters in the townships of Kungyangon and
Kawhmu
(Rangoon Division). There was nothing on the agenda to adversely
affect the
peace and tranquility of the region.
2. (a) The National League for Democracy (NLD) exists as a legally
constituted political party and has the legal right to discharge its
legal
duties and activities.
(b) Members of the NLD are members of the public and have the same
legal
rights as every member of the public to use the public highways and
waterways.
(c) The NLD is only exercising its legal right to perform its legal
tasks of
organizing its members and for this purpose exercised the right to
use a
highway open to the general public.
3. However, in the process of exercising and performing its legal
tasks,
the persons holding the highest positions with the highest
responsibilities
have now been illegally stopped and blockaded at a point known as
Kyansitha
ward, preventing them to proceed from Dala to Twante
This in itself is a criminally actionable wrong. To make it more
heinous,
food and water for them brought by the community is prohibited. It
is
obvious that the purpose for this treatment is to starve them out to
diminish their strength and threaten their lives. The tyres of the
vehicles
they were using have been deliberately deflated and all tyre-pumping
shops
have been prohibited from giving them any service we have been
informed.
Ther attitude and behaviour of those authorities is so degrading that
it
puts to shame the Burmese Buddhist culture.
4. The right thing to do is for the immediate removal of the
blockade,
which has been done under orders of the military anashins and to give
every
assistance to the leaders of the NLD to proceed with their mission.
5. We strenuously ask you, Mr. Chairman, to attend to this matter
immediately. Should the lives of these dignitaries be at risk, the
responsibility will be totally that of those performing the blockade
operation and of those under whose instructions they are acting..
Central Executive Committee
National League for Democracy
Rangoon
25 August 2000
___________________ REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL____________________
Reuters: British Conservatives want tougher line on Myanmar
Wednesday August 30
LONDON, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Britain's opposition Conservative Party
urged the government on Thursday to press Myanmar's rulers to release
British-Australian activist James Mawdsley, jailed exactly a year ago
for distributing anti-government leaflets.
``Today marks the first anniversary of James Mawdsley's arrest in
Burma. He was sentenced to 17 years in prison for a crime no more
heinous than handing out pro-democracy leaflets,'' Conservative
Foreign Affairs spokesman Francis Maude said.
Maude said he had written to Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, urging
him to step up pressure on Myanmar.
``Mr Cook has often been critical of the regime in Burma (Myanmar),
which is anti-democratic and therefore a blight to the world,'' Maude
said.
``However his rhetoric is not matched by his actions, as illustrated
by his failure to put serious pressure on Burma to free James
Mawdsley.''
Mawdsley was arrested with anti-government leaflets in Tachilek, a
city on the Thai-Myanmar border, on August 31, 1999.
It was the third time he had been arrested and Myanmar officials
have said there is little chance of clemency being shown him as he
has already been pardoned twice after the earlier incidents.
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said British officials had frequently
raised Mawdsley's case with Myanmar authorities.
Foreign Office Minister Baroness Scotland had twice called in the
Myanmar ambassador to express Britain's concern and had continued to
pursue the case through official notes and letters, the spokeswoman
said.
AP: Suu Kyi gets more world support in clash with military rulers
August 30, 2000
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) _ The government on Wednesday accused opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi of craving international attention as her six-
day-old roadside standoff with authorities received more support
around the world.
Suu Kyi, who won the 1991 Nobel peace prize for her pro-democracy
campaign in Myanmar, prepared to spend a seventh night in the open in
the Yangon suburb of Dala where she was stopped by police Thursday
while driving to the countryside for party work.
She has refused to go back to Yangon. She and 14 other party members
have spent the past week in a makeshift camp set up in the muddy
mosquito-infested area where their two vehicles were moved.
Meanwhile, Myanmar's military government has come under criticism
from around the world.
Neighbor Thailand warned that the standoff could hurt relations
between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the European
Union, which imposes sanctions on Myanmar for its human rights
record. Myanmar, or Burma, is a member of the 10-nation ASEAN.
``Thailand has expressed concern over the situation. If it is
prolonged it may have a negative impact on ASEAN's relationship with
the EU,'' Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Don Pramudvinai told The
Associated Press in Bangkok.
In Yangon, a government statement said that Suu Kyi's National
League for Democracy party should cooperate in ``a responsible and
meaningful way to (fulfill) national goals instead of flashing
symbolic gestures designed merely to attract attention.''
It said other countries should encourage the NLD ``to become a
responsible and constructive force.''
At an annual meeting of Nordic foreign ministers on Tuesday,
Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden said they ``condemn the
Burmese government's infringement'' of Suu Kyi's democratic rights.
Also Tuesday, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said Secretary-general
Kofi Annan ``is increasingly concerned about the well-being'' of Suu
Kyi, 55 and other NLD leaders accompanying her.
Eckhard noted that they ``have been denied freedom of movement.''
Suu Kyi has been at odds with the government since she led a pro-
democracy uprising against the military in 1988. She was put under
house arrest a year later and let out in 1995, but her movements
remain severely restricted.
Thursday was the first time she had driven out of Yangon in two
years. The last time was in August 1998, when her car was stopped and
she stayed put in the vehicle for 13 days.
Hoping to portray Suu Kyi's actions as a publicity stunt, the
government statement Wednesday said people ``seem indifferent to this
incident and are carrying on with their daily life ... as usual.''
A Myanmar government Web site has published daily pictures of Suu
Kyi's party members washing themselves, buying food or exercising.
The government statement has described them as taking rest in the
``charming town'' of Dala.
But it also appeared that the government's patience with Suu Kyi's
defiance is wearing thin.
It said late Tuesday said Suu Kyi and the others were blocked in
order to ``protect them from being harmed by those who have sound
reasons for resentment and indignation toward her.''
The statement said people are angry with her for ``breaking their
rice bowls'' by advocating anti-foreign investment and anti-tourism
policies which have caused unemployment.
The NLD dismissed such reactions as stage-managed and propaganda.
``We believe that the public love her and no harm can ever come to
her from the ordinary public,'' a senior NLD leader, Nyunt Wai, told
The Associated Press.
____________________________________________________
Asian Age: India & Burma Will Meet Again
India, Burma to start 7th national meet from Monday
The Asian Age, New Delhi, Aug. 26:
The seventh national level meeting between India and Burma under the
umbrella of the memorandum of understanding signed by the two
countries in 1994 will be held at Rangoon from august 28 to August
31. The MoU had been signed for maintaining peace and tranquillity
all along the Indo Burma border.
According to a home ministry spokesperson, the Indian side will be
led by Union home secretary Kamal Pande while from Burma
representatives will be led by Brigadier General Thura U. Myint Maung
who is hte deputy minister of home affairs. He added, "The meeting
will further cement economec, trade and cultural relations between
two friendly neighbouring countreis. India and Burma have sset up an
excellent tradition of conducting national meetings in a spirit of
friendship, mutual trust and understanding through the institutional
mechanism of home secretary level meetings."
The prime issue in the agenda will be discussion on effective curbing
of all illegal and negative activities such as trans-border mevement
of insurgents and other nefarious activities. Another important thing
that will be discussed will be hte MoU on border crossing between the
two countries.
In addition to this, issues like prevention of drug trafficking and
smuggling will be taken up besides strengthening of infra-structure
and security to facilitate border trade between India and Burma.
The spokesperson further said that the other issues which will figure
in the four-day talks include the bridge on river Tiau, Indo-Burma
border issues, Kaladan river project and Tamanthi hydro-electric
project.
Hindustan Times (India): Suu Kyi's agitation casts shadow over Indo-
Myanmar talks
The Hindustan Times (New Delhi)
August 30, 2000
New Delhi, August 29: The Miming of the Indo-Myanmarese bilateral
meetings could not have been more inconvenient for India.
Home Secretary Kamal Pande today reached Yangon to hold talks with his
counterpart in the military junta at the same time as Nobel Peace
prize
wining pro-democracy activist Au San Suu Kyi's third Mahatma Gndhi
style
satyagraha reaches its peak.
External Affairs Ministry spokesman R.S. Jassal tried to explain the
necessity of the meeting in the context of its "usefulness as a
mechanism for peace" along the border of the two countries.
The spokesman said the bilateral talks are held annually under a
memorandum of understanding which dates back to 1997. "The objective
of
these meetings is to maintain tranquility along the border and the
prevention of insurgency," he said.
Asked to comment on the ongoing political stand-off between the
military
government and the Suu Kyi-led National League for Democracy (NLD), Mr
Jassal said that "the Government of India hopes there will be a
peaceful
solution". For the past five days, Ms Suu Kyi has been holding a sit-
in
against the junta in the Yangon suburb of Dala after the military
blocked her access to the countryside where she was planning to hold
meetings.
This is the second time she has staged such a demonstration. In 1988,
she stayed in her car for two prolonged stints.
External Affairs Ministry sources say that New Delhi believes in a
policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of Myanmar, even
though Ms Suu Kyi enjoys wide sympathy in the Indian government
circles.
India is keen to do business with the military rulers of Myanmar and
during the Asean Regional Conference meeting in Bangkok last month, a
Gango-Mekong Swarnabhoomi project was conceived for development of
infrastructure projects.
Ms Suu Kyi, daughter of nationalist leader General Aung San, won 82
per
cent of the vote in the country's national elections in 1990, despite
being under house arrest. But the regime did not relinquish power.
India, despite being one of the convenors of the Concert of
Democracies
established in Warsaw last month, finds it hard to justify its
appeasement of the military dictators in Yangon.
Not only does India recognise the military government, it also shares
plank with it in ASEAN and the recently formed BIMST forum.
Simultaneously, India continues to demand the restoration of the
elected
regime of deposed Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry in Fiji. India has
also suspended the South Asia Association for Regional Co-operation on
the grounds of "political instability" in Pakistan following the
October
1999 coup.
AFP: Nepal denounces Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi standoff
KATHMANDU, Aug 30 (AFP) - The ruling Nepali Congress Central
Working Committee (NCCWC) Wednesday strongly denounced the Myamnar
government over a week-long standoff with opposition leader Aung San
Suu Kyi. At an NCCWC meeting, chaired by Premier Girija Prasad
Koirala, members flayed the suppression of Myanmar opposition leader
Aung San Suu Kyi and deplored the violation of human rights in Yangon.
"The NCCWC meeting has adopted a resolution which strongly
denounced the Myanmar government for violating Suu Kyi's human rights
by stopping her to move about to another part of her own country,"
party spokesman Narhari Acharya said.
The committee with request a lifting of restrictions imposed
against Suu Kyi, Acharya added.
United Nations: Sec Gen's Expression of Concern for well being of
Aung San Suu Kyi
29 August 2000
Press Release
SG/SM/7519
SECRETARY-GENERAL EXPRESSES CONCERN FOR WELL-BEING OF AUNG SAN SUU
KYI,
OTHER NATIONAL LEAGUE FOR DEMOCRACY LEADERS, IN MYANMAR STAND-OFF
20000829
The following statement was issued today by the Office of the
Spokesman
for Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
The Secretary-General is increasingly concerned about the well-being
of
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other leaders of the National League for
Democracy
(NLD), who have been denied freedom of movement near a small town on
the
outskirts of Yangon since last Thursday. The Secretary-General is
monitoring the situation closely, and calls on the Government of
Myanmar to
take the necessary steps to quickly resolve the current stand-off in a
peaceful manner.
The Secretary-General believes that the latest situation underlines
the
necessity for national reconciliation and urges the two sides to
engage, as
soon as possible, in a substantive political dialogue, as called for
by a
series of resolutions adopted by the General Assembly and the
Commission on
Human Rights.
_________________OPINION/EDITORIALS_________________
Washington Post: In a Field in Burma
Tuesday , August 29, 2000 ; A16
IN RETROSPECT, acts of courage on behalf of democracy and justice that
become the stuff of legend can seem like clear moments on a
preordained
path. The African American woman who refuses to move to the back of
the
bus, the Polish shipyard worker who lays down his tools in protest:
No one
now can doubt their bravery or even their tactical good sense. But how
many people recognized the significance or rightness of those acts as
they
were occurring? How many of us can identify similar acts when they
occur
now?
At the moment, Aung San Suu Kyi is trapped on a soggy, mosquito-ridden
rice field halfway around the world. Aung San Suu Kyi, 55, is the
rightful
leader of Burma, a Southeast Asian nation of 48 million people blessed
with beauty and natural resources and cursed with a corrupt and
repressive
military regime. The National League for Democracy, a political party
that
Aung San Suu Kyi heads, won a landslide victory in 1990 but has never
been
permitted to rule. The military regime has jailed hundreds of party
members and forced thousands more to renounce their allegiance to the
party. Aung San Suu Kyi herself was kept under house arrest until
1995 and
under virtual house arrest ever since.
Last Friday she set out from her home in the capital of Rangoon with
her
driver and a few supporters to attend a party meeting south of the
city.
The regime, apparently as fearful as ever of her popularity, sent
goons to
force her off the road and deflate the tires of her vehicle. "To
restrict
leaders of a democratic political party from moving around the
country is
a denial of fundamental human and political rights," said British
Foreign
Minister Robin Cook.
Burma's rulers explain that they have blocked Aung San Suu Kyi to
protect
her from unrest and terrorism south of Rangoon, an interesting excuse
given their usual boasts of having brought peace with their
authoritarian
methods. With their usual, almost laughable inability to understand
how
the world perceives their thuggery, they also claim the democratic
leader
is "taking rest" at Dala, "a small but charming and scenic town." They
boast of having provided her with beach umbrellas and "a new mobile
bathroom to ensure her maximum comfort and well-being."
We can only imagine how Aung San Suu Kyi would respond. The regime
does
everything it can to restrict her communication with the outside
world.
When she does manage to smuggle out an interview or essay, her
message is
consistent: She will fight nonviolently, for however long it takes,
for
democracy and the rule of law. If she someday prevails, the
discomfort and
perhaps danger she is now experiencing will be seen as one more
courageous
step in her struggle. And those who are so faint in their support--the
governments of Japan and Burma's Southeast Asian neighbors, the
companies
such as Unocal that merrily do business with the regime--will no doubt
claim to have been on her side all along.
LA Times: Myanmar: A Test Case for U.S. Principles
8/30
By JIM MANN
WASHINGTON--Myanmar may seem like a faraway place, yet it serves as
the best indicator in the world today of the role of values and
principles in U.S. foreign policy.
And it raises questions of considerable importance to the
presidential campaign: How might a new Bush-Cheney dministration,
with close ties to the U.S. oil industry, reconcile the conflict
between commercial interests and democratic ideals in a place like
Myanmar?
Over the last few days, Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San SuuKyi has
been trapped in a muddy field outside Myanmar's capital city of
Yangon (Rangoon) because Myanmar's military junta refuses to let her
travel around the country.
Aung San Suu Kyi, a disciple of nonviolence, is often referred to as
the leader of Myanmar's opposition forces. But in a way that term is
misleading, because by rights she should be considered the country's
elected leader. Her party, the National League for Democracy, won
Myanmar's only election in 1990 with an overwhelming 82% of the
nationwide vote. But the military leaders refused to give up power.
Aung San Suu Kyi spent much of the last decade under
house arrest.
She is now challenging the restrictions that have prohibited her from
leaving Yangon. Last Thursday, she and 14 supporters left the capital
to try to meet
with party leaders in a town 30 miles away. Police vehicles blocked
the road and forced them into a field, where they have remained for
several days, sleeping in their vehicles or in tents. Myanmar's
military leaders say they want to keep Aung San Suu Kyi safe
from "terrorists" or others who might want to harm her. Exactly who
might want to hurt her?
Perhaps the regime or its supporters, the government's own statements
suggest. On Tuesday, the government added a chilling Orwellian twist
to its earlier rationalizations: Aung San Suu Kyi needs to be
protected, it asserted, because there are "sound
reasons for resentment and indignation toward her." It accused her of
encouraging foreign governments to impose economic sanctions against
Myanmar.
The United States is among the countries that have imposed sanctions.
However much the Clinton administration has wavered in its policies
toward other countries, notably China, it has been consistent and
relatively tough over the last eight years in dealing with Myanmar.
A 1996 law supported by the Clinton administration prohibits new
American investment in Myanmar. The United States also has blocked
international
lending to Myanmar. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has
repeatedly voiced strong personal support for Aung San Suu Kyi and
for democracy in Myanmar.
Privately, Clinton administration officials argue that Myanmar
represents a classic example of where economic sanctions are
justified.
The regime is unusually repressive, and the sanctions deny it
legitimacy, administration officials say. American commercial
interests in Myanmar are
minuscule in comparison to China. And the U.S. sanctions serve to
restrain other governments, like Japan, from moving too quickly to
invest in Myanmar.
This week, the Clinton administration issued a strong statement
supporting Aung San Suu Kyi's right to travel freely. "Freedom of
movement is a fundamental, internationally recognized human right,"
the State Department noted.
Still, the administration's unusually firm stand against Myanmar has
been unpopular with the business community. The anti-boycott
organization USA*Engage, set up and funded by U.S. corporations, has
urged Congress to liftthe sanctions against Myanmar. Oil companies
like Unocal, the leading Americaninvestor in Myanmar, have been eager
to expand their operations there.
What would a new Republican administration do? To what extent would
it supportAung San Suu Kyi's movement for democracy? Would it stick
with the Clinton administration's policies of keeping economic
pressure on the Myanmar junta?
George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, the GOP presidential ticket, are
former oil executives. Cheney, in particular, has been especially
fervent in his opposition to the use of unilateral American
sanctions. "They almost never work," he argued in a speech two years
ago.
Those facts would seem to suggest that a new Bush administration
would ease up on the existing Clinton-Gore policy toward Myanmar.
And yet within the Republican Party, there are also currents in the
opposite direction. During the middle to late 1980s, the Republicans
developed a strong tradition of support for democratic leaders and
movements in Asia.
The Reagan administration pressed successfully for democratic changes
in the Philippines and in South Korea. Some of the leading alumni of
that administration, such as Richard L. Armitage and Paul Wolfowitz,
are now serving as foreign policy advisors to Bush.
Moreover, one of Aung San Suu Kyi's strongest supporters has been
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has pushed to tighten, not loosen,
the sanctions
against Myanmar.
So as Aung San Suu Kyi and the military junta continue their standoff
in Myanmar, the question in Washington is what will happen to
American policy there if the Republicans take the White House.
Will Big Oil win out and gain an end to U.S. sanctions in Myanmar? Or
will the Republicans support Aung San Suu Kyi in 2001, as they did
the Philippines'
Corazon Aquino in 1986?
In short, what kind of foreign policy would we get in a new
Republican administration? Maybe the candidates can tell us.
* Jim Mann's column appears in this space every Wednesday.
The Statesman (India): Why? Why? Why?
The Statesmen
Delhi, Calcutta, Siliguri
August 30, 2000
Why if the world ignoring Suu Kyi
Has the world forgotten about the brave and determined leader of the
Myanmarese people, Aung San Suu Kyi, whose National League for
Democracy won a landslide election in 1990, fully ten years ago, but
who has not been allowed by the military junta to assume power by
brute force? For the past five days she is camped in the open off a
road leading out of the city preventing from meeting her people and
party members because say the junta they are concerned for her
safety! Our collective foot! She and her small group are in a small
field infested with mosquitoes and they expect appreciation and
thanks for providing a new mobile bathroom and beach umbrella for her
use while denying her necessary medical facilities. Their concern
will only end when she leaves the country, something they have been
trying to achieve for a long time. They live in hope. The thing to
note about the military dictatorships and other oppressive regimes is
that without a free press, their misdeeds, their hypocrisy and their
corruption cannot be exposed, as it should be. The last time she
attempted to leave Yangon was in 1998 when Suu Kyi was stopped and
stayed in her car for 13 days before returning to her home on the
insistence of her doctors. No doubt the junta hope to repeat this
kind of bullying tactics and force the poor defenseless leader to go
back home.
All Suu Kyi was trying to do was to go to Kuangyangon, some fifty
kilometers south of Yangon for party organization work. That A
routine exercise of the right of democratic citizens to move freely
within their country should inspire such fear in the minds of the
tyrants and the power of this frail woman and the influence she
exercises over the hearts and minds of her countrymen.
The junta have tried everything to break her spirit, they prevented
her from seeing her dying husband in London by simply refusing her
permission to return, they regularly arrest her party men and every
visitors from overseas or even from within the country except under
observation. There is no speech or association, no freedom of the
press, no activity other then what is specifically permitted, so that
the junta can loot the country in peace. The sad part is that
businessmen in other parts of the world who are only interested in
contracts and exploitation of Myanmar's minerals and forest wealth
are behind their governments to allow the loot to progress without
let or hindrance; at regional meetings of heads of governments there
are pious pronouncements about how Myanmar is progressing and how the
hypothetical leaders of the so-called free world fool themselves that
they are in the thick of persuading the corrupt junta to liberalize
their regime because they all believe in democracy. Sections of
Indian industry profess faith in competition, what they mean to ask
for is in fact help to eliminate the competition. On a parity of
reasoning the leaders of the world's democracies do not seem to mind
if democracy itself becomes extinct in Myanmar so long as the
country's wealth flows out to them baby arrangement with the junta.
And if Suu Kyi's frail frame falls victim to the inhuman treatment
she is receiving, they will airing their hands and award her another
international recognition -- posthumously.
Is there no moral sense left in the world? If there is, why are we
not hearing its voice? Why? Why? Why?
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