Burma Related News - Aug 27, 2000.

WIRE:08/26/2000 17:25:00 ET
Myanmar rulers urge Suu Kyi to go back home as criticism mounts

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) _ Myanmar"s military government on Saturday urged pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi to end a three-day roadside standoff with security forces and signaled that it may force her to leave. Suu Kyi"s car has been blocked by police outside the capital, Yangon, since Thursday, when she and 12 members of her National League for Democracy political party tried to drive out to the countryside for party organizational work. It was the first time in two years that Suu Kyi had tried to leave Yangon. The swift security action she provoked indicated that the military government, which has ruled Myanmar with an iron fist since 1988, is in no mood to allow any opposition activity. Suu Kyi has refused to go back to the capital and has spent the last two nights in the car in the suburb of Dala. It appeared she was ready to spend a third night there. Suu Kyi and her companions "remain free to return to their homes at any time, or to continue staying by the road side as long as the conditions remain safe," said a government statement released Saturday in Yangon. The statement indicated that the government was keeping open the option of sending her back to Yangon forcibly, using her safety as a pretext. Suu Kyi tried to leave Yangon four times in 1998 but was stopped every time. On one occasion, she remained in her car for nearly six days and on another for 13 days. On Friday, the London-based Amnesty International urged the government to let Suu Kyi travel unhindered. Restricting Suu Kyi"s movements is another example of the military"s attempts to stamp out "all peaceful opposition activities" in Myanmar, also known as Burma, Donna Guest of Amnesty said in a statement. Similar protests were leveled Friday by the United States and Britain. Suu Kyi"s car and a pickup carrying her party supporters have been herded into a small lane, which has been blocked by two trucks on both ends, witnesses said. A letter written by her party"s chairman said the tires on both vehicles were deflated. The government statement said Suu Kyi was not allowed to go further because security conditions make it unsafe for her to travel outside Yangon. It said the government "encourages" her to return home and continue "her political activities in a more secure environment in Yangon." Reporters were stopped by security forces at the ferry crossing point on the Yangon river which separates Yangon from Dala. They were politely told to go back. Suu Kyi has been at loggerheads with the military government since 1988, when she helped lead a pro-democracy uprising. It was brutally crushed by the government. She was put under house arrest in 1989. The order was lifted in 1995, but her movements have remained restricted. The government refuses to honor the results of the 1990 general elections, which her party won by a landslide.

WIRE:08/26/2000 23:32:00 ET
Myanmar's Suu Kyi Keeps Up Her Roadside Showdown

YANGON (Reuters) - Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was locked in a roadside confrontation with Myanmar authorities for a fourth day on Sunday, staying in her car south of Yangon in defiance of requests by the military government to return home. The 55-year-old Nobel laureate and more than a dozen members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) spent a third cramped night in two vehicles parked beside a road in the town of Dala where they were stopped by police on Thursday. It was the first time Suu Kyi had tried to leave the capital since another roadside standoff two years ago, which ended after 13 days when deteriorating health and dehydration forced her to end her protest and return home in an ambulance. The NLD, which won elections in May 1990 by a landslide but has never been allowed to govern, said Suu Kyi was short of food and water and warned the government it would be held responsible if she came to any harm. Suu Kyi left her residence in the capital on Thursday and crossed the Yangon river by ferry before setting off with several colleagues in two vehicles to meet supporters south of the city. "We demand that the blockade be lifted immediately and the NLD leaders be allowed to proceed," the NLD said in a letter to the government. GOVERNMENT SAYS PROTECTING SUU KYI The government said Suu Kyi was prevented from traveling for her own safety and was continuing to "rest" in the town of Dala. It said travel in the area was dangerous. "Until safety conditions improve, Daw Suu Kyi is visiting Dala, a small but charming town which is 10 minutes by boat from Yangon," the government said in a statement. Witnesses said the group"s vehicles were parked a short distance off the road where they were stopped. An ambulance and a truckload of police stood nearby. The government said local authorities and residents were providing Suu Kyi and her group with food and drink. Police and a government medical team were on the spot around the clock to "ensure her maximum comfort, welfare and safety," it added. "The government encourages Daw Suu Kyi to return home and continue her political activities in a more secure environment in Yangon," it said. "She and her companions remain free to return to their homes at any time, or to continue staying by the roadside as long as the conditions remain safe." Suu Kyi was under house arrest for six years until 1995 and her movements remain severely restricted. In 1998, she twice spent several days in her car after being blocked by police when trying to leave Yangon. Governments around the world have attacked the treatment of Suu Kyi. The United States said she should be allowed to travel freely in her own country, and the European Union called on Myanmar"s government to open a dialogue with the NLD.

Sunday, August 27 4:48 PM SGT
Aung San Suu Kyi to fight 'war of endurance' with junta

YANGON, Aug 27 (AFP) - Aung San Suu Kyi will fight a "war of endurance" with Myanmar's military government over the right to travel freely, her party said Sunday as a stand-off on the outskirts of Yangon entered a fourth day.

The opposition leader and a dozen supporters were blocked Thursday as they attempted to travel to a meeting of the party's youth wing in defiance of the junta's ban on her leaving the capital.

Aung San Suu Kyi refused to obey the military's request to turn back and has endured three nights camped out in her car in wet and steamy monsoon conditions.

National League for Democracy (NLD) chairman Aung Shwe said the 55-year-old Nobel peace laureate would remain on the isolated road in Dallah township unless she was allowed to travel on or forced to return home.

The party would maintain a vigil until the showdown with the junta ended, he said.

"Our headquarters will be kept open daily until the war of endurance ends one way or another."

Although she was released from house arrest in 1995, Aung San Suu Kyi's movements are closely monitored by the military regime which has been in control of Myanmar in various guises for nearly four decades.

Her last attempt to test the restrictions was in August 1998, when she spent 13 days in a tense stand-off on a bridge outside Yangon until illness and dehydration forced her to return home.

NLD central committee member U Nyunt Wai said the latest confrontation was aimed at forcing the authorities to acknowledge the right to freedom of movement in Myanmar.

"Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is ready to endure all sorts of discomfort as long as it takes," he told AFP.

"The purpose is ... to let everyone know, including the people of Burma, the military authorities, as well as the world, that we have the basic democratic right to travel freely in our own country."

The NLD Saturday accused the government of preventing deliveries of food and water from reaching Aung San Suu Kyi and her entourage and warned the regime it would be held responsible if they became ill.

Apparently stung by the criticism, the junta issued a series of statements insisting the group was being well cared for during a "rest" in Dallah and that an ambulance and doctor were on standby.

It released photographs of the scene, which is off-limits to journalists, showing party members bathing in a stream and receiving supplies.

An NLD spokesman said Sunday that the crisis had eased and the group were all in good health.

"Food, water and medicine have reached them through the Dallah NLD party channel," he told AFP.

International outrage over the latest stand-off mounted over the weekend, with the United States, the European Union, Britain and France demanding the junta lift the blockade.

They sternly reminded the authorities that they would be held accountable for the welfare of Aung San Suu Kyi and her group.

"We urge the authorities to lift these unnecessary and unlawful restrictions immediately and call on the regime to open an immediate dialogue with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD," said British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook.

The government has argued that travel in the area is dangerous and that Aung San Suu Kyi and her party were stopped for their own safety.

"She and her companions remain free to return to their homes at any time, or to continue staying by the roadside as long as the conditions remain safe," it said in a statement over the weekend.

Witnesses at the scene said the group's two vehicles had been moved off the road and were parked about 200 yards (metres) along a dirt track. A police truck blocked their path and the tyres had been let down.

Aung San Suu Kyi remained in her car, and party members took turns to stand by her window with an umbrella to provide shade during the scorching days. They had also set up tarpaulins that served as makeshift tents.

Local townspeople said they were unaware of the drama unfolding nearby.

"We don't even know what's going on ... we're too busy going about our business trying to survive," one Dallah resident told AFP.

The authorities seem resigned to the situation and another endurance test is likely to be in the offing, observers in Yangon say.

"She will be there for as long as she can, until she's forced to turn back because she becomes ill. She won't give in easily," one diplomat said.

Sunday, August 27 1:37 PM SGT
Aung San Suu Kyi: West's democracy poster-child, but thwarted at home

BANGKOK, Aug 27 (AFP) - Twelve years after she returned home from Europe, Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi remains excluded from power by Myanmar's junta but has emerged as an icon of democracy for the West.

Her ambitions for power have been thwarted at every step by the military rulers, with the junta's boot firmly quashing any movement for substantive political change.

The National League for Democracy (NLD) leader saw aspirations for democracy in heady 1988 demonstrations evaporate in a hail of gunfire which left thousands of protestors dead.

The next decade has been one of ultimately fruitless struggle against the military and analysts say the opposition's fortunes have markedly declined.

Aung San Suu Kyi now sits in her car on a lonely stretch of country in a protest of which her compatriots know little or nothing but which the international community is watching intently.

The daughter of Myanmar independence hero Aung San -- revered by opposition and junta alike and who was assassinated months before the country won independence from Britain in 1948 -- has paid a high price for her political life.

A victim of her own popularity, she was placed under house arrest in 1989 under the "Law Protecting the State from Destructionists" and only granted limited freedom in 1995.

Her thunderous silence during those years of house arrest galvanized global opposition to the junta, drawing denunciations from the United Nations, governments and human rights groups world wide. The award of a Nobel peace prize in 1991 only served to reinforce that opposition.

Aung San Suu Kyi was born June 19, 1945, in Yangon and educated there until 1960 when her mother, Khin Kyi, was named ambassador to India, and then at Delhi University. From 1964-67 she studied philosophy, politics and economics at St. Hugh's College, Oxford University, England, earning a bachelor's degree.

In 1972 she married British academic Michael Aris. Their first son, Alexander, was born in 1973 and their second, Kim, in 1977. The junta has seized on her marriage as evidence she is not committed to Myanmar and frequently refers to her simply as Mrs Aris.

Aris died in March 1999 after a long struggle with cancer. The junta denied Aris a visa in the last months of his illness. Aung San Suu Kyi declined to leave the country to be by her husband's side, an _expression_ of solidarity with those strugging for democracy and her fear that she may not be allowed back in.

She had returned to Rangoon in April 1988 to tend to her sick mother and found the city awash in protests against the military, which had seized power in 1962. The demonstrations quickly spread nationwide and grew in intensity and she took on the role of intermediary in what was to become a bloody confrontation.

In September 1988, she was named secretary-general and co-founder of the National League for Democracy (NLD), an alliance of 105 opposition parties challenging the junta.

Beginning in October 1988 she crisscrossed Burma, delivering more than 100 campaign speeches for the NLD ahead of national elections.

Aung San Suu Kyi mesmerized huge crowds with her beauty and speaking ability, and because she was the daughter of Burma's founding father.

Despite being confined to her home, she led the NLD to a landslide victory in 1990 polls. The junta has refused to accept the results.

She has held regular meetings of supporters at her compound and continues to speak out against the junta.

But analysts say international attention has drifted from Myanmar and has driven her to seek confrontations with the military.

In a rare and exclusive interview with AFP last year, she admitted that intense pressure from Myanmar's military junta had exposed internal rifts in the party.

The Nobel laureate said the government crackdown was a kind of "test" which would ultimately strengthen her party.

Sunday, August 27 12:51 PM SGT
Fears for Aung San Suu Kyi mount on fourth day of stand-off drama

YANGON, Aug 27 (AFP) - Aung San Suu Kyi's stand-off with Myanmar's military government on the outskirts of Yangon entered a fourth day Sunday amid concerns she is being denied adequate supplies of food and water.

The Nobel laureate and more than a dozen members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) were halted Thursday as they set off for a party meeting in an outlying town, in defiance of a travel ban which confines her to the capital.

Aung San Suu Kyi refused to obey the junta's request to turn back and has now spent three uncomfortable days and nights in her car in the township of Dallah.

As food and water ran low, the NLD appealed for local people to bring supplies to the opposition leader and her entourage, but complained over the weekend that the military was blocking the deliveries.

"If the health of those being blocked be impaired by lack of food and water ... this is the entire responsibility of those who have stopped them," the NLD central executive committee said in a letter to the military regime.

"We demand that the blockade be immediately removed and the NLD leaders be allowed to proceed to their desired destination."

Diplomatic sources said Aung San Suu Kyi was unlikely to back down easily and that the situation could become extremely difficult if supplies were cut off.

"If the local people can't get water to them, then I would imagine things are getting pretty tricky," one said.

Although she is no longer under house arrest as she was between 1989 and 1995, Aung San Suu Kyi's movements are closely monitored by the military regime which has been in control of Myanmar in various guises since 1962.

The last attempt to test the restrictions was in August 1998, when she was barred from travelling to a meeting of provincial supporters.

She camped out in a minibus on a bridge northwest of Yangon in a tense 13-day confrontation that ended when she became ill and dehydrated and was forced to return home.

International outrage over the latest stand-off mounted over the weekend, with the United States, the European Union, Britain and France demanding the junta lift the blockade.

They sternly reminded the authorities that they would be held responsible for the health and welfare of Aung San Suu Kyi and her group.

British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said he was "disturbed" by reports of the confrontation.

"We urge the authorities to lift these unnecessary and unlawful restrictions immediately and call on the regime to open an immediate dialogue with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD," he said.

Apparently stung by the criticism, the junta issued a series of statements insisting the group was being well cared for during the "rest" in Dallah.

It released photographs of the scene, which is off-limits to journalists, showing party members bathing in a stream and being delivered supplies.

An ambulance and doctor was stationed nearby in case of emergency and supporters were providing fruit, water and soft drinks, it said in a statement.

"She and her companions remain free to return to their homes at any time, or to continue staying by the roadside as long as the conditions remain safe."

Witnesses at the scene said the party's two vehicles had been moved off the road and were parked about 200 yards (metres) along a dirt track. A police truck blocked their path and the tyres had been let down.

Aung San Suu Kyi remained in her car, and party members took turns to stand by her window with an umbrella to provide some shade during the steamy days. They had also set up tarpaulins that served as makeshift tents.

The spot is not visible to passing traffic and few people have been allowed to approach the scene. Local townspeople said they were unaware of the drama unfolding nearby.

"We don't even know what's going on ... we're too busy going about our business trying to survive," one Dallah resident told AFP.

The opposition leader's intentions have not been made public, but it appears she will hold out until she is allowed to travel to the meeting of the party's youth wing in nearby Kawhmu or is forced to return to Yangon.

The authorities seem resigned to the situation and another endurance test is likely to be in the offing, observers in Yangon say.

"She will be there for as long as she can, until she's forced to turn back because she becomes ill. She won't give in easily," one diplomat said.

Sunday, August 27 5:33 PM SGT
World reacts with outrage to Aung San Suu Kyi stand-off

BANGKOK, Aug 27 (AFP) - The international community has expressed its outrage at the Myanmar junta's blockade on Aung San Suu Kyi in countryside outside Yangon and warned it would be held responsible for her safety.

The military government's refusal to allow the opposition leader to travel outside the capital was a serious infringement of her human rights, they said.

National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Aung San Suu Kyi and a dozen supporters prepared Sunday to spend a fourth night in their vehicles, surrounded by military authorities in the township of Dallah where they were waved down Thursday.

They had been attempting to reach a meeting of the party's youth wing in a nearby town, the first attempt in two years to test the travel ban which has been in place since Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest in 1995.

The United States, European Union (EU), Britain and France demanded the junta lift the blockade immediately.

In London, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said he was "disturbed" by reports on the confrontation.

"To restrict leaders of a democratic political party from moving around the country is a denial of fundamental human and political rights."

The French foreign ministry Saturday also called for the travel ban to be lifted at once.

"France condemns the restrictions on the freedom of movement imposed on Mrs Aung San Suu Kyi and on members of the National League for Democracy," the ministry said in a statement.

It said Paris considered the Myanmar authorities "responsible for the safety and health" of the Nobel peace prize winner.

In a statement issued in Paris, the French presidency of the EU said it was "concerned" about news of the situation of Aung San Suu Kyi and her entourage, as NLD members complained the junta was blocking deliveries of food and water.

It reiterated its call for the military government to open a dialogue with the NLD and other democratic forces and minority groups in Myanmar.

The United States Friday put the ruling generals on notice that Washington held them responsible for the welfare of the Nobel laureate and supporters accompanying her.

State Department spokesman Philip Reeker accused Myanmar of infringing Aung San Suu Kyi's rights with the confrontation in the township of Dallah.

"The United States deplores the government of Burma's refusal to allow Aung San Suu Kyi and other National League for Democracy leaders to travel freely in their own country," said Reeker, using Myanmar's former name.

"Freedom of movement is a fundamental, internationally recognised human right. Its denial can only increase existing tensions in Burma."

Reeker said the United States condemned the "abridgement of Aung San Suu Kyi's right to freedom of movement and her right to visit whomever she chooses."

"We are concerned about the health and safety of the National League for Democracy group and hold the Burmese authorities directly accountable for their welfare," he said.

The Myanmar government has argued that travel in the area is dangerous and that Aung San Suu Kyi and her party were stopped for their own safety.

"She and her companions remain free to return to their homes at any time, or to continue staying by the roadside as long as the conditions remain safe," it said in a statement over the weekend.

It has insisted they were being well cared for during their "rest" in Dallah and that an ambulance and doctor were on standby.

An NLD spokesman said Sunday that supplies were now reaching the group and that they were all in good health.

"Food, water and medicine have reached them through the Dallah NLD party channel," he told AFP.

The NLD won a convincing victory in 1990 elections but the results have never been recognised by the military, which has carried out a campaign of intimidation against the opposition.

Bangkok Post - Aug 27, 2000.
River patrols scout for smugglers
Tak

Boat-landings along the Moei river in Mae Sot will be closed if police decide they are being deployed in smuggling operations. River patrols will be stepped up after the arrest last Wednesday of five suspects for smuggling 400,000 methamphetamine pills into the country from Burma.

The suspects, one Thai and four Burmese men, were arrested by narcotics suppression police at Wat Amarawadi. They arrived from Myawaddy with speed pills at the Ban Huay Muang boat landing in Tambon Tha Sai Luad.

They allegedly bought the drugs from soldiers of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army.

District officer Samart Loyfa called a meeting of officials on Friday. Police are worried about an increase in the number of cars and motorcycles smuggled out of the country and methamphetamines coming in.

Bangkok Post - Aug 27, 2000.
Migrant status plan

The Interior Ministry has proposed for legal immigrant status Burmese, Nepalese and Haw Chinese displaced persons who have been registered as highlanders. These people immigrated to Thailand before Oct 3, 1985.

The cabinet decided on that date to grant legal immigrant status to people of nine hilltribes. The Interior Ministry wants to give these people the same status.

It has also sought Thai nationality for their children, the same way as it has already done for children of Vietnamese refugees, former Nationalist Chinese soldiers, Haw Chinese refugees and former Communist Party of Malaya guerrillas. The proposal will be tabled for cabinet approval on Tuesday.

The Nation - Aug 27, 2000.
Opinion
REGIONAL PERSPECTIVE: Repercussions from Suu Kyi's stand-off

BY KAVI CHONGKITTAVORN

It was no accident that a confidential report written by the new Australian ambassador to Burma, Trevor Wilson, was leaked to the press last week.

The report gave a very negative assessment of human-rights conditions in Burma. It said that the junta showed no signs of being interested in relinquishing power.

Australia's stake in Burma is very high, because Canberra believes that its current soft approach, as against the harder-line practices of the EU and US, is producing positive results in improving the human-rights record and promoting political dialogue.

Canberra is funding a series of human-rights workshops and training programmes in Rangoon, hoping that this will help the regime to set up a national human-rights commission as in other Asean countries.

The report was a prelude to the ongoing stand-off between Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and military authorities in Dala, a town outside Rangoon, as this is the latest indication that the regime remains as intransigent as before. It was the first time in two years that Suu Kyi had defied a ban on travelling outside Rangoon after she made worldwide headlines in August 1988 in a 13-day confrontation with the military on a bridge northwest of the capital.

As Suu Kyi stays inside her car, refusing to turn back, international criticism of the regime's action continues to grow. Washington has deplored Burma's refusal to allow Suu Kyi and other National League of Democracy leaders to travel freely in their own country.

Britain, which has maintained one of the toughest anti-Burma positions in the EU, also weighed in. British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said he deplored the treatment of Suu Kyi. "We urge the authorities to lift these unnecessary and unlawful restrictions and call on the regime to open an immediate dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD," he said.

The European Union likewise called on Burma to lift travel restrictions on Suu Kyi. So far all Asean members remain silent.

If the confrontation continues this week, all the goodwill that Burma accumulated at the recent Asean ministerial meeting will evaporate very quickly. Worse still, this stand-off could have wider implications.

First, it would further embarrass Asean, which has suffered for the past three years after admitting the pariah state into the grouping. It could also derail the Asean effort to assist Burma to meet its obligations towards the International Labour Organisation by mid-November. If that is the case, Burma faces the prospect of having more Asean members abstain from voting for it.

Second, the stand-off, if it deteriorates and causes any harm to Suu Kyi's physical condition and to that of her entourage, will certainly draw tougher retaliatory measures from the EU. As the president of the EU, France has so far adopted a rather pragmatic approach towards Burma. France could lose ground to such EU hard-liners as the UK, Denmark and Sweden. If that is the case, it could also affect the scheduled Asean-EU ministerial meeting in Vientiane later this year.

Finally it brings Suu Kyi back onto political centre stage inside Burma after years of lying low. After the military crack-down in August 1988 and the regime's reneging on the May 1990 election, she has been playing a catalytic role in promoting democracy in Burma and calling for an international boycott of the regime.

Her presence and defiance will certainly win back those sceptics who have dismissed her as a potent political force in a future Burma. Bangkok-based non-governmental representatives who met her recently said she was in high spirits and would continue her political crusade for a democratic Burma.

In a interview last week Suu Kyi renewed her call for international pressure to help achieve democracy in Burma. She said the recent opening of universities, closed in 1996 after anti-government protests, was a sham.

At this crucial juncture, it is interesting to watch the role of the UN special representative for Burma, Ismail Razali. In his assessment, the Australian envoy stressed that his appointment and other attempts at more direct engagement with the Burmese leaders have yet to result in any substantive improvements.

Asean and its dialogue partners hope that Razali will be able to make a breakthrough within a year given his experience and the country he represents, Malaysia. Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad was the key person pushing for Burmese membership in Asean.

As the world watches the stand-off at Dala, it will witness Suu Kyi's iron will and that of those who want to stop her.

The Nation