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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HEADLINE -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BBC - European press review
AFP - Clinton, Blair slam Myanmar for Aung San
Suu Kyi detention
Reuters - Myanmar Attacks Critics, Calls
Suu Kyi a Stooge
IHT - Rangoon's Military vs. the
World
AFP - Junta charges synchronized media offensive
against Myanmar
AP - Land Mine Ban Making a
Difference
AP - Myanmar Defends Suu Kyi
Treatment
The Age - Getting Burma to take the first
steps
The Age
- Burma insists Suu Kyi is
safe
Washington Post - Text of Clinton's
Address to the U.N. Summit
Ananova - West give us a bad press says Burma
chief
IPS - RIGHTS-BURMA: GOV'T STEPS UP CAMPAIGN OF
MASS DISPLACEMENTS
ASIA PULSE - Dica Joins Forces With Planetcomm
for Internet Solutions in Asia
Bkk Post - Wa request for treatment of malaria
patients rejected
Bkk Post - DRUGS - Brass confirms Wa working
with Shan
Kyodo News - Diplomats to visit Suu Kyi to
verify standoff situation
SCMP - BURMA - General alleges international
media is biased
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- URGENT ACTION -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Urgent Action by Amnesty International - Japan
Branch
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BURMA RELATED NEWS - SEP 6, 2000. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BBC - Thursday, 7 September, 2000,
07:43 GMT 08:43 UK
European press review Fears of a European "winter of discontent" begin to be voiced as France is
brought to a near-standstill by its road hauliers and the euro plumbs new
depths. Some wonder if the Millennium Summit will live up to its grandiose
title, while the gnomes of Zurich worry about the goose that lays the golden
eggs.
France: bring on the bicycles?
"Enough is enough!" says an exasperated editorial in the Paris left-leaning
Liberation. It says that Prime Minister Lionel Jospin's statements on Wednesday
were "belated but assertive" and believes that his firmness "means that he is
now ready to use force if necessary.
The paper agrees with the government's refusal to make the demanded
sweeping cuts in fuel taxes.
"The reasons ... are not just environmental," it says. "Such cuts would
encourage oil producers to persevere with their low-production, high-prices
policy" and "would also perpetuate the antiquated structure of the road haulage
industry by preventing mergers."
But the prime minister's late intervention comes in for criticism: "Having
failed to make its intentions clear ... the government allowed the snowball to
build up to the point where it threatened to become an avalanche," it says.
"As for Jospin, he bet he could stand firmly in the middle of the slope,
facing the wind."
Reporting on the side-effects of the crisis, the leading French daily Le
Monde notes the government's decision to shelve its plans for an environmental
tax is threatening a cabinet crisis because it has upset the Greens, a coalition
partner.
In another report the paper says the agitation is spreading to other areas,
with "farmers, ambulance workers, taxi drivers, coach operators and boatmen
demanding state handouts to make up for the rise in fuel prices" and threatening
to join the barricades themselves.
Winter forecast
The Spanish papers agree that the growing fuel protests mean Europe can
expect a winter of discontent.
In an editorial headlined "A hard and tense winter", the Madrid-based
Diario says "it looks as though a very hard winter is in store for consumers,
who will have to pay a lot more than a year ago for heating and transport".
It will also be far from pleasant for Europe's governments, "bound to find
themselves faced with greater social protests".
The paper says this is a "new scenario" for Prime Minister Jose Maria
Aznar, "who has so far benefited from factors outside our economy which have now
turned against him".
Euro whodunit
"Euro plumbs new depths as oil prices soar to new heights: bad news for
Europe," says a commentary in Turin's La Stampa of the European single
currency's new record low against the dollar.
The paper blames the weakness of the euro partly on the "damage done by
energy costs to the European economy" and also on "speculative tensions" fed by
"unclear signs given to the markets" by the European Central Bank whose policy,
it says, "lacks clarity and determination".
Madrid's El Mundo, on the other hand, thinks it's unfair to blame the
European Central Bank and urges European policy makers to stop whinging and put
their economies in order.
The paper backs US Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan's view that the
policies of the European Union member states are to blame "for not using the new
technologies to reduce costs and ditch protectionist ballast".
While conceding that Spain "cannot control what Germany does or force the
Opec hawks to cut petrol prices", the paper points out that the government
"could at least put in place the means to prevent our inflation surge from
turning into a vicious circle of stagnation and unemployment".
The Paris-based International Herald Tribune takes the search for the
guilty party in a slightly different direction, blaming the euro's record dive
on the German chancellor's "negative comments".
The paper says Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder "helped kick-off the single
currency's latest slide" when he told a conference the low level of the euro was
"more of a reason to be happy than concerned" because it stimulates the European
economy.
Chancellor's Schroeder's remarks also suggested "a potentially dangerous
divergence" between those who stress "the benefits of a weak euro in stimulating
exports and job growth", and the European Central Bank, "which fears the
inflationary consequences of a weak currency", the paper says.
The Millennium Summit
As the largest-ever gathering of heads of state builds up a head of steam
at the United Nations in New York, The French Le Nouvel Observateur is
interested in Secretary-General Kofi Annan's statement on Tuesday that the UN
should monitor individual member states' implementation of the Millennium
Summit's decisions and publish its findings.
"Diplomacy has in the past nearly always dictated that no member country,
no matter how notoriously guilty, should be criticised for its inaction or its
violations," the paper says.
This is why Kofi Annan's 'name them-and shame them' plan "would set a real
precedent" it adds.
As for the summit itself, the paper believes the "real achievements" may
actually come about "on the sidelines", naming the Middle East peace process as
a candidate for a back-room breakthrough while the high-sounding utterances go
on in the main hall.
The Portuguese Publico praises the United Nations while acknowledging its
limitations.
"Now as during the Cold War, it is the balance of power and the interplay
of interests that dictate what can and cannot be done," the paper says in an
editorial.
This explains why the UN "took a relatively short time to arrive in Timor
but never arrived in Rwanda, intervened in Kosovo but ignored Chechnya, and was
powerless in Somalia, ineffectual in Cambodia and tragically incompetent in
Sierra Leone".
However, as a an international forum and reference point, and a "dynamic
catalyst for striking agreements or bringing people closer together", the UN's
role is "not just inestimable but indeed fundamental", the paper says.
The Burmese challenge
"International community helpless before Burma deadlock," says a headline
in the Swiss Le Temps, which was probably going to press as President Bill
Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair rose to denounce the Burmese
regime at the Millennium Summit in New York.
All that the South East Asian states' policy of "constructive engagement"
achieved in the past 12 years was "to fill the wallets of greedy businessmen
from Singapore and Bangkok", the paper says, "because the Burma regime's
repression has not slackened, quite the opposite in fact".
On the other hand "it must be admitted that the sanctions imposed by the
United States and the European Union are not much more effective", it adds.
"Worse still, they tend to penalise the population they are supposed to
help."
The paper sees "recent diplomatic realignments" as a bad omen: "Not only
does China remain a solid ally - and main arms supplier - of the ruling junta,
but India too has lately been making approaches after supporting the opposition
for years," it notes.
Gnomes, geese, and golden eggs
After the Swiss Federal Banking Commission last Monday criticised several
leading Swiss banks for accepting deposits from the family of the late Nigerian
military ruler Sani Abacha, the Swiss Tribune De Geneve says that, with the new
legislation enacted last spring, "Switzerland undoubtedly has the toughest laws
against money-laundering in the whole world".
However the Abacha disclosures "blew to smithereens" the authorities'
"certainty of a job well done" and highlighted "the most formidable of
dilemmas", the paper adds.
"The question is, how far can the clean-up go before it kills the goose
that laid the golden eggs by frightening away the 4,000 billion francs -
one-third of the world's privately-owned wealth - managed in our country?"
"Whoever can provide an answer to this deserves to be called a genius," the
paper concludes.
The European press review is compiled by BBC Monitoring from internet
editions of the main European newspapers and some early printed editions.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, September 7 2:16 AM SGT
Clinton, Blair slam Myanmar for Aung San Suu Kyi detention UNITED NATIONS, Sept 6 (AFP) -
US President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair blasted
Myanmar's ruling junta Wednesday for its treatment of opposition leader Aung San
Suu Kyi, who has been detained by authorities there since Saturday.
Speaking to the UN Millennium Summit, the largest gathering ever of world
leaders now underway here, the two leaders called on Yangon to immediately
release the Nobel laureate.
Blair called Aung San Suu Kyi's treatment a "disgrace," while Clinton, who
spoke ahead of the prime minister, likened the situation in Myanmar, formerly
Burma, to those in Serbia and Iraq, where human rights and democracy are also
under siege.
"We face another test today in Burma where a brave and popular leader, Aung
San Suu Kyi, once again has been confined, with her supporters in prisons and
her country in distress, in defiance of repeated UN resolutions," Clinton said
in a blunt attack on the authorities in Yangon.
Blair wound up his remarks with even more direct comments.
"Finally, I do not wish to leave the UN without saying this: The treatment
of Aung San Suu Kyi by the Burmese regime is a disgrace," Blair said.
"I call upon the Burmese government to let her go free and I call on fellow
world leaders to back that call."
Aung San Suu Kyi, as well as other officials from her National League for
Democracy, have been detained in their residences since Saturday after the end
of a nine-day standoff that began on August 24 when the Nobel laureate and her
entourage were blocked from traveling to a party meeting outside the
capital.
There was no immediate reaction to the comments from Myanmar's Foreign
Minister Win Aung, who is representing his country at the Millennium
Summit.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday September 7 4:59 AM ET
Myanmar Attacks Critics, Calls Suu Kyi a Stooge By Aung Hla Tun YANGON (Reuters) - A war of
words between Myanmar and its international critics escalated on Thursday with a
stinging response from the military government to an embarrassing barrage of
criticism at the U.N. Millennium Summit in New York.
A commentary in the state-run, English-language New Light of Myanmar
newspaper said pro-democracy opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, padlocked by
the authorities inside her home since Saturday, was a neo-colonialist stooge
being kept under supervision for her own safety.
``All these protesters, presidential candidates, heads of state, the
secretary-general of the U.N., blithely jumped on the trumpet-blowing bandwagon
of calumniating (sic) Myanmar, not because they see, they hear, they know for
themselves the Myanmar affairs, but for their own selfish purposes and aims,''
it said.
``But the truth will come out in due course, truth will triumph
ultimately.''
Myanmar's military forcibly brought Suu Kyi back to Yangon in the early
hours of Saturday, ending a nine-day roadside protest which began when
authorities stopped her in her car just outside the capital and refused to let
her travel to the provinces.
She has been confined to her residence ever since, out of telephone contact
and with diplomatic access barred.
The New Light of Myanmar, which like other Myanmar newspapers is seen as an
official mouthpiece of the government, suggested Suu Kyi was in danger from
unidentified plotters.
``Myanmar leaders, wise in the ways of evil-minded people, clearly foresee
perils under which Suu Kyi is flitting about unwarily,'' said the newspaper
commentary.
``Myanmar leaders have learned many lessons from events taking place around
the world that perpetrators of political massacres have an atrocious habit of
silencing and destroying the instruments they have employed in accomplishing
their sinister assignments,'' it said.
``The Myanmar leaders cannot and will not allow such a catastrophe
happening on Myanmar soil, hence the solid, wisdom-led reason to keep Suu Kyi
always under their vigilant eyes, for her own safety as well as for safeguarding
Myanmar's fame against the calumniating fusillades (sic) of
neo-colonialists.''
Condemnation At Millennium Summit
The Myanmar government has denied that Suu Kyi and her senior colleagues
are under house arrest, saying they have been asked to stay at home while it
investigates reports that some members of her National League for Democracy
(NLD) had been involved in ``terrorist activity.''
Suu Kyi's protest, and the government's subsequent crackdown, came at an
embarrassing time for Myanmar, with world leaders meeting in New York for the
U.N. summit.
President Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair used their summit
speeches to denounce Myanmar.
``We face another test today in Burma, where a brave and popular leader,
Aung San Suu Kyi, once again has been confined with her supporters in prison and
her country in distress, in defiance of repeated U.N. resolutions,'' Clinton
said.
In his five minute address at the summit, Blair said: ``I do not wish to
leave the United Nations again without saying this: the treatment of Aung San
Suu Kyi by the Burmese regime is a disgrace. I call upon the Burmese government
to let her go free, and I call on fellow world leaders to back that
call.''
Suu Kyi's NLD won elections in 1990 by a landslide but has never been
allowed to govern.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Herald Tribune
Paris, Thursday, September 7, 2000 Rangoon's Military vs. the World By David I. Steinberg International Herald Tribune WASHINGTON - The attempt by the Burmese Nobel Peace laureate Daw Aung San
Suu Kyi and her opposition National League for Democracy colleagues to travel by
car outside of Rangoon for party organizational work has been forcibly stopped
by the Burmese military authorities, as were several such trips two years ago.
This new effort could be seen as a failed opposition attempt frustrated by the
government, but in one important sense it was eminently successful.
In spite of the league's inability to accomplish its ostensible purpose of providing support to provincial party chapters, the sympathetic coverage given to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in a wide range of international media has once again focused attention on the plight of the democratic forces in the country. The existence of the league as a legal political party, and the well-being
of its leader, are tenuous. If Burma were isolated from world scrutiny, as it
was in 1962 when the military seized power, it is more than likely that the
league would long ago have been declared illegal and all its activities
summarily proscribed, even though it has been careful to call only for
nonviolent activities.
The automobile trips are one dramatic means by which the league creates
confrontations with the military to attract foreign headlines. There are others
as well, such as suing the government in the Burmese courts.
Such moves have two subsidiary motives beyond the search for publicity.
They test the limits to which the mili-tary will go without formally shutting
the party down, and they seek to garner local support, in spite of the mediaban
on any positive mention of the league.
The government's reaction to this particular trip has been more severe than
in past encounters. Raiding the league's headquarters and the forced isolation
of its leadership (the government refuses to call it house arrest) have raised
the stakes.
The military has been frustrated by the dogged determination of Daw Aung
San Suu Kyi and the opposition, the political deadlock, an economy that
continues to decline, the dearth of foreign investment, Burma's pariah status in
much of the world and the increasingly critical attitude of some Southeast Asian
countries, most publicly Thailand.
There have been suggestions, perhaps trial balloons, in the
government-controlled press that the league should be outlawed and that Daw Aung
San Suu Kyi should be exiled. A current move to try to implicate the league in
potential violence may be a precursorof such a plan.
Shutting down the league would be seen as another sign of the regime's
readiness to ignore the world and revert to solitary stagnation so as to hang on
to power. This would generate further international opprobrium and economic
isolation. The Burmese people would be the losers.
The writer, director of Asian studies at Georgetown University, contributed
this comment to the International Herald Tribune.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, September 7 7:17 PM SGT
Junta charges synchronized media offensive against Myanmar BANGKOK, Sept 7 (AFP) -
Myanmar's junta Thursday charged that the global media was collaborating to
conduct a synchronized campaign against the Yangon regime.
"It seems that the media today are quite preoccupied, highlighting
allegations and fabrications launched against the government of Myanmar," the
government said in a statement.
"Stories designed to disinform readers and viewers are created and
synchronized by those with vested interests to serve their ulterior
motives."
"It is no secret that a negative media campaign against the government of
Myanmar has been tailored to coincide with several important events such as the
UN Millennium Summit."
US President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair blasted
Myanmar's ruling junta Wednesday at the UN Millennium Summit for its treatment
of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been detained by authorities in
Yangon since Saturday.
Blair called Aung San Suu Kyi's treatment a "disgrace," while Clinton, who
spoke ahead of the prime minister, likened the situation in Myanmar, formerly
Burma, to those in Serbia and Iraq, where human rights and democracy were also
under siege.
In its statement, the junta dismissed the allegations by Blair, Clinton and
others that Aung San Suu Kyi's rights were being suppressed, saying that such
allegations were "groundless" and "blown out of proportion."
Myanmar authorities raided the National Leaue for Democracyheadquarters and
seized what they called "incriminatory material" and documents early Saturday,
just before they officially announced that a nine-day showdown between Aung San
Suu Kyi and the junta was over.
The Nobel peace laureate and a dozen NLD members had been camped out in
their cars on the outskirts of Yangon since August 24 when they were blocked
from travelling to a party meeting outside the capital.
At the same time as the raid, the authorities effectively placed the NLD
leadership under house arrest, although the junta denied anyone had been
officially arrested.
The NLD won a landslide general election victory in 1990, but the junta has
never recognised the result and is accused by foreign critics and human rights
groups of severe repression of opponents.
Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of Burmese nationalist leader General Aung
San, was put under house arrest for six years and has subsequently had her
movements greatly restricted.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, September 7 8:02 AM SGT
Land Mine Ban Making a
Difference
By GEIR MOULSON, Associated Press Writer GENEVA (AP) - A global treaty
to ban the use of land mines has made a significant difference in its first 18
months, but major blackspots - among them Chechnya, Kosovo and Myanmar - remain,
anti-mine campaigners said Thursday.
Angola continues to use the weapons although it has signed the treaty,
while Burundi and Sudan ``likely'' do so, according to the Landmine Monitor 2000
report. Sudan has denied the allegation.
The study said Yugoslav forces laid some 50,000 land mines during the
Kosovo conflict and that Chechnya also saw heavy laying of mines.
The report, produced by the Nobel laureate International Campaign to Ban
Landmines, will be presented next week to a Geneva meeting of countries that
have ratified a 1997 treaty outlawing the weapons.
``We have turned the tide in the battle against mines,'' the 1,121-page
report said. It found that trade in the weapons has almost completely halted,
with no shipments recorded this year or last.
Since the treaty came into force on March 1 last year, some 10 million
stockpiled antipersonnel mines have been destroyed, bringing the total so far to
22 million, it said.
The study estimated that more than 250 million mines remain stockpiled in
105 nations.
China leads the list with some 110 million mines, followed by Russia with
60-70 million, Belarus with 10-15 million and the United States with 11 million,
it said. Ukraine, Pakistan and India each were estimated to have stocks of more
than 4 million mines.
Estimates of deaths and injuries were ``sketchy and incomplete,'' the study
conceded. But it found marked decreases in countries including Afghanistan,
Bosnia, Cambodia and Mozambique.
Still, new land mine victims have been recorded in 71 countries, more than
half of them at peace, it said. In Kosovo, 492 deaths and injuries were recorded
in the year to May; in Chechnya, ``hundreds'' were suspected.
Since the treaty came into effect the weapons likely have been used in 20
conflicts, by 11 governments and 30 rebel groups.
The treaty has been signed by 138 governments and ratified by 101. Among
those who have not signed are the United States, Russia and China.
Washington maintains land mines are needed on the Korean peninsula to deter
North Korea from invading South Korea. President Clinton wants the United States
to approve the treaty by 2006, but only if the armed forces are able to come up
with an alternative.
Russia and China say they need land mines for defensive purposes.
Antipersonnel mines have been used in eight conflicts in Africa over the
past year, more than any other continent, Landmine Monitor said. They killed or
maimed more than 1,000 people in Angola.
The report said Colombia, where the two biggest rebel factions have used
land mines, is the only country in the Americas where they are now being used.
In Asia, mines were used in at least six conflicts over the past year -
among them in Kashmir and the Philippines where, the study said, three rebel
groups have used mines or improvised explosives.
Government forces and at least 10 armed ethnic groups in Myanmar laid mines
``in significant numbers'' - resulting in 1,500 mine victims last year - while
both sides used them in Sri Lanka's civil war, it added.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, September 7 8:41 PM SGT
Myanmar Defends Suu Kyi
Treatment
By AYE AYE WIN, Associated Press Writer YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -
Myanmar's military junta said Thursday that Western nations have lied about how
it treats opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Myanmar is facing ``allegations and fabrications ... by certain western
governments and the anti-government quarters within and without the country,'' a
statement published on the government's Web site said. It said ``a flurry of
groundless accusations (including) violation of human rights, mainly Suu Kyi's
rights,'' have appeared in the international media.
Suu Kyi and eight other top leaders of her National League for Democracy
have been confined to their homes since Saturday in the latest crackdown by the
country's iron-fisted military rulers.
The opposition leaders are not allowed any visitors and telephone lines to
their homes have been cut. The NLD party headquarters have been shut, and police
have confiscated documents to investigate what they say are the party's links
with terrorists.
The West has slammed the government's actions as a gross violation of
political rights of a legitimate party.
Myanmar's government has kept the NLD on a tight leash since 1988, when Suu
Kyi led pro-democracy demonstrations. The NLD overwhelmingly won the country's
1990 general elections but was never allowed by the military to take office.
In New York on Wednesday, President Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony
Blair used their speeches before the U.N. Millennium Summit to denounce the
junta in Myanmar, also known as Burma.
``We face a clear moral test today in Burma, where a popular leader who has
struggled peacefully for dialogue has once again been confined, with her
supporters imprisoned and her country in distress, all in defiance of repeated
U.N. resolutions,'' Clinton said.
``The treatment of Aung San Suu Kyi by the Burmese regime is a disgrace,''
Blair declared at the conclusion of his remarks, calling on world leaders to
back his call for her freedom.
The government's counterattack on its Web site was the most scathing
criticism of Suu Kyi and the West since last month, when the 1991 Nobel Peace
Prize winner was prevented from leaving Yangon for political work. An adamant
Suu Kyi camped out in the open for nine days in her car until she was forcibly
returned to Yangon by security forces and put under virtual house arrest.
Also Thursday, state-run newspapers quoted senior Myanmar junta member Lt.
Gen. Khin Nyunt as saying the government is having trouble getting its point of
view across in the international media, state-run newspapers said Thursday. He
was quoted as saying the international media, ``dominated and manipulated by
some Western nations, are sending news according to their wishes.''
In the past, the military rulers have accused Western media organizations
of being one-sided and biased and charged that foreign radio broadcasters such
as the BBC, the Voice of America and Radio Free Asia are interfering in
Myanmar's internal affairs with the aim of putting the opposition into power.
Because Myanmar does not have a free press, foreign shortwave radio broadcasts
are widely listened to here.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Age
Getting Burma to take the first steps By ALEXANDER DOWNER Thursday 7 September 2000 That there has been so much discussion recently on human rights in Burma is
a good thing. I am disappointed, though, that there appears to be some
misconceptions about what Australia is doing and why.
There can be no argument about the extent of human rights abuses in Burma.
The events over the past two weeks reinforced the need for democratic reform and
respect for human rights. The challenge facing the rest of the world is what we
should do about it.
Over 10 long, miserable years for the Burmese people, isolationist and
sanction-based approaches have led to no political change, nor have they
contributed to any improvement in the grim human rights picture.
Fresh, innovative approaches to Burma are needed. The Australian
Government's human rights initiative aims in a small, incremental way to try a
different approach.
In July, 1998, I suggested to the then Burmese Foreign Minister, UOhn Gyaw,
that Burma consider setting up an independent human rights institution. This
approach held out the promise of a path for Burma to work to guarantee human
rights within its own jurisdiction.
An obvious model that we considered would be acceptable to the Burmese was
that set up in Indonesia under president Suharto's rule.
The Australian Government was not alone in this thinking. Australia's then
Commissioner for Human Rights, Chris Sidoti, saw merit in the initiative. His
visit to Burma in August, 1999, identified, as an initial step, the potential
for human rights training activities. Through cooperation at the level of
government officials, the first two workshops in July this year provided an
introduction to human rights for middle-level Burmese civil servants. A third
workshop is planned for October.
This approach is consistent with the practical measures we have adopted
with many other states in the region. As in China and Vietnam, training is an
important first stage in building an environment of greater understanding and
respect for human rights.
The Burmese Government also announced on August10 that it is moving to set
up a human rights commission of its own. Naturally we will follow very closely
how they do this. These are the only positive developments in human rights in
Burma over the past decade.
In light of a decade of failed approaches to bring about change in Burma,
to suggest that our small-scale efforts to provide human rights training has
failed soon after it started is either naive or disingenuous.
Our approach has been falsely characterised as turning a blind eye to the
abuses of the Burmese Government. We do not tolerate human rights abuses. Our
approach is not appeasement or "cosying up" to the Burmese Government. We have
never hesitated to criticise human rights abuses in Burma.
We have always strongly supported United Nations efforts to influence
change in Burma. Our human rights initiative complements UN processes, such as
the efforts of the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Burma. We work
with other like-minded countries in multilateral forums such as the UN General
Assembly and the Commission on Human Rights to produce tough, consensus
resolutions on Burma. On June 14, at the International Labor Conference in
Geneva, Australia voted for a strong resolution on forced labor.
Assertions that Australia is the only country engaging with Burma are pure
myth. Burma is now a member of ASEAN and, as a member, talks with the United
States, the European Union and Australia, all ASEAN dialogue partners. Nor
should we pretend Australia is the only developed country engaging Burma through
education programs - Japan and some major European nations are providing
scholarships and training, including some for Burmese government
officials.
Australia's policy is not an endorsement of the SPDC. We are in total
agreement with the US, the EU and many in Asia in our campaign to see
significant political reform and an improvement in human rights in Burma.
Significantly, we have engaged the Burmese Government on the specific issue of
human rights.
That said, we know our human rights initiative is a small first step. We
also know it will not be an easy process and results will take a considerable
time.
The choice before us is to do something, or to do nothing.
Alexander Downer is Minister for Foreign Affairs and
Trade.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Age
Burma insists Suu Kyi is safe By AUNG HLA TUN - RANGOON
Thursday 7 September 2000 Burma's ruling military insisted yesterday that opposition leader
Aung San Suu Kyi was safe and sound, but she remained locked inside her Rangoon
residence and cut off from the world despite mounting international protests.
A government spokesman said Ms Suu Kyi was in her residential compound with
12 members of her National League for Democracy who accompanied her during a
nine-day roadside protest forcibly ended by the authorities on Saturday.
"They are all fine," the spokesman said, adding that relatives of some of
the NLD members in Ms Suu Kyi's compound had been allowed to visit them.
But diplomats in Rangoon said they remained barred from visiting or
contacting Ms Suu Kyi, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her
struggle for democracy in Burma.
Burma told Britain on Tuesday it might allow diplomatic access to Ms Suu
Kyi within two weeks.
Ms Suu Kyi and senior NLD members have been confined in their homes since
Saturday, when the authorities brought Ms Suu Kyi back to Rangoon and launched a
crackdown on her party.
The Burmese government has denied Ms Suu Kyi and her senior colleagues are
under house arrest, but has said they have been asked to stay at home while it
investigates reports that some NLD members had been involved in "terrorist
activity".
Burma's treatment of Ms Suu Kyi has sparked a war of words between the
government and its international critics, particularly Britain and the United
States.
State-run newspapers on Tuesday quoted the head of military intelligence,
Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt, as saying "two big Western countries" were
meddling in Burma's affairs.
The government also attacked Britain's ambassador in Rangoon, John Jenkins,
after he tried to visit Ms Suu Kyi.
John Battle, a junior British Foreign Office minister, summoned Burma's
London ambassador Kyaw Win on Monday to protest at the crackdown and demand
information about Ms Suu Kyi.
He said the ambassador told him diplomatic access to Ms Suu Kyi may be
allowed within two weeks.
Human rights watchdog Amnesty International is gravely concerned for the
safety of Ms Suu Kyi and others.
In a new move designed to intensify pressure on Ms Suu Kyi, Burma's
military rulers said 24 members of her party had deserted her. State-run
newspapers reported they resigned from the National League for Democracy party
in Mandalay, Burma's second largest city, and an important constituency for Ms
Suu Kyi.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Washington Post
Text of Clinton's Address to the U.N. Summit Wednesday, September 6, 2000; 11:32 AM THE PRESIDENT: Madam President, Mr. Secretary General, my fellow leaders,
let me begin by saying it is a great honor to have this unprecedented gathering
of world leaders in the United States.
We come together not just at a remarkable moment on the calendar, but at
the dawn of a new era in human affairs, when globalization and the revolution in
information technology have brought us closer together than ever before. To an
extent unimaginable just a few years ago, we reach across geographical and
cultural divides. We know what is going on in each other's countries. We share
experiences, triumphs, tragedies, aspirations.
Our growing interdependence includes the opportunity to explore and reap
the benefits of the far frontiers of science and the increasingly interconnected
economy. And as the Secretary General just reminded us, it also includes shared
responsibilities to free humanity from poverty, disease, environmental
destruction and war. That responsibility, in turn, requires us to make sure the
United Nations is up for the job.
Fifty-five years ago, the U.N. was formed to save succeeding generations
from the scourge of war. Today there are more people in this room with the power
to achieve that goal than have ever been gathered in one place. We find today
fewer wars between nations, but more wars within them. Such internal conflicts,
often driven by ethnic and religious differences, took five million lives in the
last decade, most of them completely innocent victims.
These conflicts present us with a stark challenge -- are they part of the
scourge the U.N. was established to prevent? If so, we must respect sovereignty
and territorial integrity, but still find a way to protect people as well as
borders.
The last century taught us that there are times when the international
community must take a side, not merely stand between the sides or on the
sidelines. We faced such a test and met it when Mr. Milosevic tried to close the
last century with the final chapter of ethnic cleansing and slaughter. We have
faced such a test for 10 years in Iraq, where the U.N. has approved a fair
blueprint spelling out what must be done. It is consistent with our resolutions
and our values, and it must be enforced.
We face another test today in Burma, where a brave and popular leader, Aung
San Suu Kyi, once again has been confined -- with her supporters in prisons and
her country in distress -- in defiance of repeated U.N. resolutions.
But most conflicts and disputes are not so clear-cut. Legitimate grievances
and aspirations pile high on both sides. Here there is no alternative to
principled compromise, in giving up old grudges in order to get on life. Right
now, from the Middle East to Burundi to the Congo to South Asia, leaders are
facing this kind of choice, between confrontation and compromise.
Chairman Arafat and Prime Minister Barak are with us here today. They have
promised to resolve the final differences between them this year, finally
completing the Oslo process embodied in the Declaration of Principles signed
seven years ago this month at the White House.
To those who have supported the right of Israel to live in security and
peace; to those who have championed the Palestinian cause these many years: let
me say to all of you, they need your support now, more than ever, to take the
hard risks for peace. They have the chance to do it. But like all life's
chances, it is fleeting and about to pass. There is not a moment to lose.
When leaders do seize this chance for peace, we must help them.
Increasingly, the United Nations has been called into situations where brave
people seek reconciliation, but where the enemies of peace seek to undermine it.
In East Timor, had the United Nations not engaged, the people would have lost
the chance to control their future.
Today I was deeply saddened to learn of the brutal murder of the three U.N.
relief workers there by the militia in West Timor, and I urge the Indonesian
authorities to put a stop to these abuses.
In Sierra Leone, had the United Nations not engaged, countless children now
living would be dead. But in both cases, the U.N. did not have the tools to
finish the job. We must provide those tools -- with peacekeepers that can be
rapidly deployed with the right training and equipment, missions well-defined
and well-led, with the necessary civilian police.
And we must work, as well, to prevent conflict; to get more children in
school; to relieve more debt in developing countries; to do more to fight
malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS, which cause a quarter of all the deaths in the
world; to do more to provoke prevention and to stimulate the development and
affordable access to drugs and vaccines; to do more to curb the trade in items
which generate money that make conflict more profitable than peace -- whether
diamonds in Africa or drugs in Colombia.
All these things come with a price tag. And all nations, including the
United States, must pay it. These prices must be fairly apportioned, and the
U.N. structure of finances must be fairly reformed so the organization can do
its job. But those in my country or elsewhere who believe we can do without the
U.N., or impose our will upon it, misread history and misunderstand the
future.
Let me say to all of you, this is the last opportunity I will have as
President to address this General Assembly. It is the most august gathering we
have ever had, because so many of you have come from so far away. If I have
learned anything in these last eight years, it is, whether we like it or not, we
are growing more interdependent. We must look for more solutions in which all
sides can claim a measure of victory and move away from choices in which someone
is required to accept complete defeat. That will require us to develop greater
sensitivity to our diverse political, cultural and religious claims. But it will
require us to develop even greater respect for our common humanity.
The leaders here assembled can rewrite human history in the new millennium.
If we have learned the lessons of the past, we can leave a very different legacy
for our children. But we must believe the simple things -- that everywhere in
every land, people in every station matter. Everyone counts, everyone has a role
to play, and we all do better when we help each other.
Thank you, and God bless you all. (Applause.)
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Sydney Morning Herald
Canberra to press envoy on treatment of Suu Kyi Date: 07/09/2000 By CRAIG SKEHAN, Herald Correspondent in Bangkok Australia's Foreign Minister will today meet the Burmese ambassador to
express concern over the military regime's refusal to allow access to Ms Aung
San Suu Kyi.
The democracy activist has been held incommunicado in her home since
Saturday, when security personnel forcibly ended her nine-day protest vigil on
the outskirts of the capital, Rangoon.
Mr Downer and the Australian Government have come under growing criticism
over their policy of greater diplomatic engagement with the Burmese junta,
including opposition to United States and European sanctions.
Australian officials said last night that Mr Downer had decided to call in
the Burmese ambassador as a demonstration of Canberra's view that Ms Suu Kyi was
being treated improperly.
Australia and like-minded countries would also sign a diplomatic note
calling for her political rights to be respected.
A commentary in the official New Light of Myanmar newspaper yesterday
compared Ms Suu Kyi to an "evil" wandering female ascetic who had set out to
destroy the Buddha through slander, and accused the US Central Intelligence
Agency of being behind anti-Burma propaganda on Voice of America radio.
"All the leaders, including Suu Kyi, continue to be under house arrest and
their gates are padlocked," a Bangkok-based NLD official, Dr Sann Aung, said.
"There is no telephone or other contact."
He said up to 20 people who had given Ms Suu Kyi food and other assistance
during the protest vigil had been detained for questioning.
The military regime this week accused the United States and Britain of
instigating instability.
"They are creating unrest in the country by agitating a handful of
disruptive and subversive groups who will follow their dictates," the military
intelligence chief, Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt, said.
The US Embassy in Rangoon described as a "malicious fabrication" a claim
that the NLD was involved in attempts to smuggle remote-controlled bombs into
Burma.
The military regime has also accused the British and American embassies of
breaching diplomatic norms by going to Ms Suu Kyi's home during recent days and
demanding entry.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ananova - Sep 7, 2000.
West give us a bad press says Burma chief A senior member of Burma's ruling junta says they have trouble getting
their point of view across in the international media because of pro-Western
bias.
Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt, Secretary-One of the State Peace and
Development Council, made the complaint as the junta suffered a fresh barrage of
criticism for its latest crackdown on the country's pro-democracy movement and
its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.
"While the international information sector, dominated and manipulated by
some Western nations, are sending news according to their wishes, it is not easy
for a developing country like Burma to inform the world about its true
situation," Khin Nyunt said to staff of the state-owned television and radio
station.
His remarks were reported in all three official newspapers.
The junta has long been criticised by many Western nations and human rights
groups for human rights abuses and its failure to hand over power to a
democratically-elected government.
The criticism increased after the junta blocked Suu Kyi from travelling to
the countryside to carry out political activities two weeks ago, then forcibly
brought her back to Rangoon last week.
Since then she and other party leaders have been forced to stay in their
homes and their telephone lines have been cut.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Inter Press Service
RIGHTS-BURMA: GOV'T STEPS UP CAMPAIGN OF MASS DISPLACEMENTS CHIANG MAI, Thailand, (Sep. 6) IPS - Hundreds of thousands of Burmese villagers
have been systematically evicted from their homes by the military in order to
cut off support for ethnic minorities battling Rangoon, a new report says.
It is the largest mass displacement in decades of civil war, says the Chiang Mai-based Burma Ethnic Research Group (BERG) in a report documenting the displacement in Karenni State in eastern Burma. Not since 1962, when the military seized power, has the strategy of
displacing large populations and "resettling" them been exercised on such a
scale, it says.
Today, as then, the goal is the same: to quell opposition by cutting off
possible support to armed insurgency groups by local populations, including
food, funds, intelligence and potential recruits.
"The state's response has been a military one in which policies are
implemented without consultation, participation or even within the civil-legal
framework," the report says.
While Karenni holds up to 70,000 internally displaced persons, or IDPs,
according to the U.S. Special Rapporteur for Burma, Rajsoomer Lallah, there are
up to a million IDPs in Burma if one includes those in Chin and Arakan States
and the Naga Hills in the west, where rebels continue to work actively against
the regime.
Many of the biggest displacments have taken place in the 1990s, the BERG
report says. Large numbers of villagers in Karenni suspected of supporting the
resistance armies were forced out, and "their houses were burnt down and
destroyed."
In 1992 and 1996 alone, over 40,000 people were evicted from their homes,
"on a scale not previously experienced in Karenni."
"Most people relocated can take along with them few belongings, not only
because they are given little time to move...but also because they must travel
by foot," says an activist working with Burmese refugees along the Thai-Burma
border.
Many eventually flee poor conditions in the relocation sites, according to
a number of other studies on IDPs in Burma. They return to their original
villages, hide in the forests, or escape across the border into Thailand.
There is an "inability or unwillingness to consider issues such as the
availability of water, food supplies, cultivable land and employment" in
relocation sites, says the BERG report.
Similarly, in central Shan State, which borders Thailand, Laos and China,
over 300,000 people have been ordered at gunpoint to move to strategic
relocation sites, according to the Shan Human Rights Foundation.
This was in order to quell opposition from armed groups which refused to
surrender to the ruling State Peace and Development Council, along with the drug
warlord Khun Sa and his Mong Tai Army in early 1996.
Here, as in other ethnic minority states, the villagers not only had to
leave behind their livestock and crops, but were made to live in the most
primitive conditions.
Pushed into empty sites along roads, they had to build their own makeshift
huts, and ended up as day laborers or beggars, with no other source of income.
Many were also used as forced labor on road-building projects or at military
camps.
With earlier village sites declared "free-fire" zones, anyone attempting to
return is shot on sight. There are abundant reports of villagers returning to
their old homes to harvest crops or find some food to eat being shot at.
Women and girls have been particularly vulnerable to rape and sexual
abuse.
"Interviews with refugees have shown that there have been attacks on both
men and women, including rapes, both in relocation sites and just outside," says
the BERG report.
"There appears to have been little or no provision of safe sleeping
quarters for unmarried women, female-headed households and unaccompanied
children," it adds.
"The biggest problem with the situation of IDPs today is firstly, denial of
refuge, and secondly, problems with cross-border assistance," says Steve
Thompson, a Thailand-based activist working on Burma-related issues.
Not only have refugee camps across the border in Thailand been refusing to
accept new arrivals, but none of the NGOs based in Thailand are legally allowed
to work across the border in Burma.
A surge in activity by Burmese dissident groups, including the Karen God's
Army, which seized a hospital in Ratchaburi west of Bangkok in January, is seen
as contributing to the problem.
With the nutritional and health situation of IDPs already precarious,
according to research reports, the situation is becoming desperate.
"IDPs live without security, regular food or access to medical services,
and many are in heavily land-mined areas," said Dr. Chris Beyrer from John
Hopkins University's School of Hygiene and Public Health, who has worked
extensively on health issues in the region.
"These are arguably the neediest and most difficult-to-access populations
in the current Burmese diaspora," he adds.
"As a result, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR),
which has a mandate to protect refugees across the world, has recently also been
lobbying for the right to protect, assist and advocate on behalf of the
internally displaced."
But activists say that the UNHCR will first have to obtain authorization
from U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, as well as the consent of the Burmese
government.
"The UNHCR doesn't have a good track record in assisting refugees,
including the Rohingyas from western Burma," argues an NGO activist in Chiang
Mai. "They need to clean up their act before they start asking for their mandate
to cover IDPs as well."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
ASIA PULSE
Thursday, September 7 10:07 AM SGT Dica Joins Forces With Planetcomm for Internet Solutions in Asia Bangkok,/September 7th, 2000/ News Aktuell-AsiaNet/-- Planet Communications
of Bangkok has been appointed as a certified reseller by DICA Technologies to
offer DICA's market-leading range of ISDN infrastructure and 'plug and play'
Internet security appliances to customers in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar,
Vietnam and Nepal. The announcement was made here today at the AsiaComm/ExpoComm
2000 technology exhibition and conference.
PlanetComm is a value-added reseller that has successfully leveraged its
expertise in satellite communications and videoconferencing to sell increasingly
into the Internet solutions sector. The company has the technical expertise
needed to support its 120-strong reseller base in the region, as well as to sell
directly to end-user customers.
"This is a significant move forward for DICA in Asia," says Michael Smith,
vice president sales for DICA's Asia/Pacific territory. "We have been looking to
expand our channel in this region and see PlanetComm as the ideal business
partner, as they offer the geographical reach and technical know-how we need to
ensure our mutual success."
DICA Technologies' market-leading products include the NetPilot Secure
Server Appliance and the Scrypt-Guard Internet Security Appliance. The company
also sells a family of line encryptors used to protect voice, video and data
transmissions carried by ISDN lines, as well as a variety of multiplexers, range
extenders, converters and other ISDN infrastructure products.
NetPilot is a neat and easy way to bring e-business capabilities to a small
or medium-sized enterprise (SME), including Internet access to every LAN-based
PC user. It not only makes the Internet and e-mail cost-effective, accessible
and controllable, but also provides advanced firewall facilities to guarantee
network security and web 'boundary caching' for fast response and best
utilisation of the Internet connection. NetPilot controls and monitors web
browsing so that employees are encouraged to use the resource responsibly. Web,
print and file serving are also included.
The Scrypt-Guard Internet security appliance is a simple to install,
completely transparent e-mail encryption device that ensures all e-mail traffic
can travel over the Internet in completely anonymous, encrypted form. It is an
ideal solution for protecting vital business communications carried by e-mail.
DICA's family of Internet security products ensures fully secure
communication at any point across a network: NetPilot has a Checkmark-accredited
firewall to protect LAN information.
The product also offers IPSec-based VPN connectivity to ensure secure
transmissions between an organisations branches and remote users. ScryptGuard's
proprietary encryption technology, called D/SM, ensures end-to-end e-mail
security. Both appliances are easy to install and maintain, so companies do not
require internal IT expertise in order to enjoy the benefits of secure Internet
communications and access.
About DICA Technologies AG DICA Technologies AG is a leading international
company that specializes in producing innovative products for network security
and access. These products provide the highest levels of security for voice,
data and video communications carried by the Internet and ISDN. A staff of more
than 150 people develop and distribute DICA products worldwide, supporting
customers with digital communications on five continents. The company's
headquarters are based in Berlin, Germany, while subsidiaries are maintained in
North America, South America, the United Kingdom and Australia. Carriers such as
Deutsche Telekom, British Telecom and Telefonica de Argentina rely on DICA
products, as do such large companies as British Petroleum (BP), Citibank and
DaimlerChrysler. DICA also provides products to the United Nations Organization
(UNO) and other important agencies.
Michael Smith
Vice President Sales for DICAs Asia/Pacific territory Phone: 0061 2 99563
861 Mobile: 0061 419 670001 E-mail: msmith@@dicatech.com
Christian Fitzner, Susanne Haeckel Phone: 0049 89 48 90 13-0 cf@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, sha@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bangkok Post - Sep 7, 2000.
BORDER - Wa request for treatment of malaria patients rejected Mae sot, Tak Local officials have rejected a request by a Wa leader to bring patients
suffering from malaria and typhoid to Thailand for treatment.
This is despite the fact 2,000 of them have died, said a leading member of
the Burmese minority.
The spread of the diseases prompted Thai authorities to step up measures to
stop Wa patients crossing the border.
According to an ethnic minority source, nearly 2,000 people under the
United Wa State Army have died of typhoid, malaria and diarrhoea in southern
Shan state of Burma.
Joe Sept, chief of Lahu National Development Organisation's information
office, said the diseases broke out in early July and spread rapidly last month.
The UWSA could not bring the epidemic under control due to a lack of medicine
and poor hygiene.
The UWSA has now turned to China for help, he said. "The UWSA has hired
some 20 Chinese doctors to provide treatment to its patients and to control the
epidemic. However, the doctors are not enough to handle a large number of
patients and the epidemic area is wide, making it difficult to bring under
control. "The numbers of patients and deaths continue to grow," he said.
Sources said Thai officials had been ordered to keep a close watch on the
border to stop the diseases from spreading. The UWSA, it is feared, will send
more illicit drugs into Thailand to raise money to fight the
epidemic.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - Sep 7, 2000.
DRUGS - Brass confirms Wa working with Shan Inflow from Burma expected to surge Subin Khuenkaew - Chiang Mai The Third Army chief yesterday confirmed reports the United Wa State Army,
the biggest drug trafficker in the region, and the Shan State Army were
collaborating.
Lt-Gen Wattanachai Chaimuenwong, who is responsible for drug suppression in
the North, said this was not unusual since both groups were directly involved in
the drug trade.
The UWSA expanded southward from Mong Yawn, its southern headquarters
opposite Chiang Mai's Mae Ai district, to an area formerly held by the SSA
opposite Chiang Dao and Vieng Hae districts, he told an NGO seminar.
The Wa also extended their influence southward to border areas opposite Mae
Hong Son province and Mae Sot district of Tak.
The inflow of illicit drugs was likely to increase next year because
several minority groups joined the drug trade, he said.
The army expected a tough fight next year, he said, and would initiate
development projects as part of its anti-drug drive. Many were lured into the
drug trade because of poverty.
During the seminar, several NGO representatives supported a proposal to
grant Thai citizenship to hilltribe people giving them access to regular jobs
and a place in society.
Lt-Gen Wattanachai said he supported the proposal which would make a
significant contribution to the war on drugs.
The SSA denied it made a drug deal with the UWSA and said it wanted to stop
drug trafficking in its area of influence.
- People travelling to the Olympic Games from Bangkok will be subjected to
strict customs and immigration checks because of the expected increase in drug
trafficking during the period.
Sorasit Saengprasert, secretary-general of the Office of Narcotics Control
Board, said drug gangs might take advantage of the Sydney Games to step up drug
smuggling to Australia.
He said many sports fans, athletes and officials would be travelling
through Bangkok between Sept 15-Oct 1, some of whom might be drug traffickers or
couriers.
Special attention would be given to chartered flights to Australia, said Mr
Sorasit, adding that parcels would also be closely examined.
Pol Lt-Gen Komkrich Patphongpanich, commissioner of the Narcotics
Suppression Bureau, said Australia's heroin problem was worsening and Australian
police were co-operating with their Thai counterparts to stem the drug
flow.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- MANILA, Sept. 7 Kyodo
Diplomats to visit Suu Kyi to verify standoff situation Myanmar's junta will allow foreign diplomats to see pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi within two weeks, a Philippine official said Thursday. Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) spokesman George Reyes said Philippine
Ambassador Phoebe Gomez will likely be part of the group of diplomats who will
call on Suu Kyi to check the circumstances that led to a nine-day standoff
between her party and security forces.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
South China Morning Post
Thursday, September 7, 2000 BURMA - General alleges international media is biased ASSOCIATED PRESS in Rangoon A senior member of Burma's ruling junta says the government has trouble
getting its point of view across in the international media because of
pro-Western bias, state-controlled newspapers reported on
Thursday.
Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt, Secretary-One of the State Peace and Development Council, made the complaint as the junta suffers a fresh barrage of criticism for its latest crackdown on the country's pro-democracy movement and its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. ''While the international information sector, dominated and manipulated by
some Western nations, are sending news according to their wishes, it is not easy
for a developing country like [Burma] to inform the world about its true
situation,'' General Khin Nyunt said to staff of the state-owned television and
radio station on Wednesday.
His remarks were reported in all three official newspapers on
Thursday.
In New York on Wednesday, US President Bill Clinton and British Prime
Minister Tony Blair used their speeches before the UN Millennium Summit to
denounce the junta's restrictions on leaders of Ms Suu Kyi's National League for
Democracy party.
The junta has long been criticised by many Western nations and human rights
groups for human rights abuses and its failure to hand over power to a
democratically-elected government.
The criticism increased after the junta blocked Ms Suu Kyi from travelling
to the countryside to carry out political activities a fortnight ago, then
forcibly brought her back to Rangoon last week. Since then she and other party
leaders have been forced to stay in their homes and their telephone lines have
been cut.
The government also raided and closed the NLD headquarters last Saturday,
accusing the party of links with terrorist groups. This has raised fears that
the government may use the alleged link as an excuse for severe legal action
against the NLD.
The government says the party leaders were merely requested to stay at home
while investigations are in progress.
In the past, the junta has accused Western media organisations of being
one-sided and biased and charged that foreign radio broadcasters such as the
BBC, the Voice of America and Radio Free Asia are interfering in Burma's
internal affairs with the aim of putting the ''foreign-relying opposition'' into
power.
Because Burma does not have a free press, foreign shortwave radio
broadcasts are widely listened to.
At the United Nations, Mr Clinton said in his opening remarks that the
world could not remain silent about the situation in Burma.
''We face a clear moral test today in Burma, where a popular leader who has
struggled peacefully for dialogue has once again been confined, with her
supporters imprisoned and her country in distress, all in defiance of repeated
UN resolutions,'' Mr Clinton said.
''The treatment of Aung San Suu Kyi by the Burmese regime is a disgrace,''
declared Britain's Mr Blair at the conclusion of his remarks, calling on world
leaders to back his call for her freedom.
Hoping to refute reports that opposition leaders are being confined to
their homes, Burma's military government on Wednesday released photographs
purporting to show an aide to Aung San Suu Kyi walking in downtown
Rangoon.
On its Web site, www.myanmar.com, the
government published three photographs of NLD central executive committee member
Hla Pe. The caption claimed he was walking on Tuesday to visit an
ophthalmologist.
A government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said NLD leaders
would be ''allowed out for medical and social purposes''.
The site also published a commentary titled ''Government of Myanmar Regrets
the Unproductive and Negative Media Campaigns Waged Against her by Certain
Quarters''.
It claimed that relatives of the NLD leaders had been visiting them at
their homes, contrary to reports by diplomats that no one was allowed into or
out of the leaders' homes.
Burma's government has kept the NLD on a tight leash since 1988 when Ms Suu
Kyi led pro-democracy demonstrations. The military allowed national elections in
1990 but refused to honour the results when the NLD won a landslide. Ms Suu Kyi
was awarded the 1991 Nobel peace prize for her work.
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URGENT ACTION BY AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL |