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BURMA RELATED NEWS - MAY 12,
2002.
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HEADLINES
----------------------------------------------------------------- Reuters - Myanmar's Suu Kyi wants first trip to
be to Norway
Reuters - Malaysia PM welcomed as voice of
reason by Washington
Guardian - One free in Burma, fifty million to
go
JT - Japan pledges money to Myanmar
Scotsman - Battle to rebuild a shattered Burma
Power Report - Japan Extends 628m Yen in Grant
Aid for Hydro Project
The Independent - Burmese junta hints at power
sharing deal with Suu Kyi
Bkk Post - Suu Kyi told to watch her back
----------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday May 12, 2:49 PM
Myanmar's Suu Kyi wants first trip to be to Norway By Aung Hla Tun YANGON, May 12 (Reuters) -
Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel peace prize in
1991, said again on Sunday that she wanted her first trip abroad since being
released from house arrest last week to be to Norway, home of the prize.
Suu Kyi said in a telephone conversation with a Japanese politician,
broadcast by the Voice of America, that she would like to show her gratitude for
support given by Norway.
"We owe the Norwegian people and government a debt of gratitude for
relentlessly giving us complete support in our struggle for democracy," she
said.
During her last house arrest in central Yangon which ended last Monday, Suu
Kyi was quoted as saying Norway would be the first country she would visit if
she were able to travel abroad freely and able to return home to Myanmar.
The charismatic opposition leader did not say when she would make her first
foreign trip, but said last week that the ruling military government had not
imposed any conditions on her movement. The Nobel award to Suu Kyi helped put
the spotlight on the military regime which has ruled the country for four
decades and violently suppressed opposition.
The Norwegian Nobel Institute last week hailed her release and urged the
Myanmar military to take more steps towards democracy.
"She is a unique woman, some say the most shining of recent Nobel winners,"
Olav Njolstad, acting director of the Nobel Institute, told Reuters. "She is
brave. She has fought for democracy under extremely difficult conditions for
herself and for her people."
Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy Party won a landslide
election victory in 1990 but the military did not allow them to rule.
In her broadcast conservation with Japan's Social Democratic Party chief
Takako Doi, Suu Kyi said while highly appreciative of Japan's past support for
her campaign for democracy in Myanmar, she had hoped the Japanese government
would have done more.
She said Japanese government support for her cause did not match that of
ordinary Japanese people.
"We would like the Japanese government to give us as much support as the
Japanese people do," she said, adding that Japan would be high on the list of
countries she would like to visit.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday May 12, 3:07 PM
Malaysia PM welcomed as voice of reason by Washington By Simon Cameron-Moore KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) -
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad will be welcomed as a voice of reason
in the war on terror and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict when he goes to the
White House this week.
The veteran statesman, whose frankness has the capacity to offend Jews,
gays and whites, is likely to be on best diplomatic behaviour when he meets
President George W. Bush on Tuesday to receive thanks for his support since the
September 11 attacks.
Shunned after the jailing of Anwar Ibrahim, the deputy who dared challenge
him in 1998, Mahathir is back on Washington's guest list after an eight year
gap.
Former vice president Al Gore incensed Mahathir by voicing support for
pro-Anwar demonstrators during a visit to Kuala Lumpur in 1998, and the State
Department still regards Anwar's trials for sodomy and abuse of power as flawed.
Mahathir, ironically, goes to Washington carrying some kudos for the
release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi by Myanmar's military junta
last week.
At a time when Myanmar was regarded as a pariah, Mahathir pioneered the
policy of constructive engagement with Yangon's generals to encourage political
change.
An old anti-colonialist, Mahathir believes Asia should find its own way to
democracy rather than be forced down the route the by West, and he distrusts
western white hegemony.
He bridles at any preaching on democratic mores or at being told how to run
Malaysia's economy, which he steered out of the Asian crisis -- contrary to
International Monetary Fund advice -- by fixing the exchange rate and slapping
on capital controls.
INTERNATIONAL CLOUT
Whereas Washington once harboured doubts about Mahathir's diplomatic
credentials, Asia's longest serving elected leader is now a man to cultivate on
a number of counts.
He is a Muslim, moderate on religious issues and strong on defence and
security issues, having locked up more than 60 militants in a crackdown that
hotted up after September 11.
He also has clout beyond the small southeast Asian country of 23 million
people that he has ruled for the past 21 years.
Next year Mahathir is a shoe-in to become the chairman of both the
Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), grouping 57 Muslim countries, and
of the Non-Aligned Movement, which comprises 115 states largely from the
developing world.
And in a region often beset by political turmoil, Malaysia represents a
"beacon of stability", James A. Kelly Assistant Secretary of State for East
Asian and Pacific Affairs said when he visited last month.
COURTS CONTROVERSY
Kelly was also full of praise for Mahathir's controversial speech to OIC
foreign ministers at a conference on terrorism in Kuala Lumpur in early April.
To the chagrin of Arab delegations, Mahathir suggested Palestinian suicide
bombers as well as the Israeli state should be considered terrorists, along with
anyone else who targets civilians.
The straight-talking Mahathir remained unruffled, as his pro-Palestinian
pedigree was never in doubt.
The Middle East issue is also working in his favour at home, helping him
rebuild bridges within his own ethnic Malay majority, whose vote was split in
1999 by his humiliation of Anwar.
Mahathir stole the show last week when he shared the platform with the
leader of the Islamic party for the first time, live on television, in a
programme condemning Israel.
Mahathir called Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon "an animal" and said
Muslims should unite to isolate Israel diplomatically, to cheers from an
audience drawn largely from the Islamic opposition, allied to Anwar.
His office issued a less emotive statement on Friday.
"We have insisted that negotiations are the only path to a peaceful
resolution on this conflict and that military actions are no options for both
sides."
Washington expects more of the same next week.
"When the two leaders get together, the number one issue they are going to
talk about will be counter-terrorism because that's the most important issue on
our agenda, and Malaysia also shares that belief," U.S. ambassador Marie T.
Huhtala told Reuters.
"But they will talk about a number of other things too, especially, I
believe, the situation in the Middle East."
FIGHTER DEAL
There is also speculation that the U.S. will sell Malaysia F-18 E/F Super
Hornet fighters.
The Far East Economic Review said Boeing will announce the deal next week,
though a senior Defence Ministry source and a Malaysian defence analyst said
that report had jumped the gun.
Malaysia's ties with the U.S. at the security level remained tight
throughout all the diplomatic squalls. The U.S. is also Malaysia's biggest
exporter and trading partner.
"Mahathir always preferred meeting American businessmen to American
politicians," said John Mallot, former U.S. ambassador to Kuala Lumpur, who had
wanted Bush to withdraw the invite to Mahathir in support of Anwar, who is
serving a 15 year jail-term.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Guardian
One free in Burma, fifty million to go After Aung San Suu Kyi's release, the world must keep the pressure on if Burma's many other political prisoners are to realise their struggle for freedom and democracy. Maureen Aung-Thwin Sunday May 12, 2002 The release of Burmese democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi from house
arrest last week is indeed cause for celebration. However, it is also a time to
remember the over thousand or more political prisoners who remain incarcerated
for such "serious crimes" as talking about democracy or distributing banned
literature. The rest of the Burmese populace is in effect still a hostage of the
military regime. There is no aspect of daily life that is not regulated or
scrutinized by the government. For example, overnight guests - even one's own
relatives, if they are not part of the official household - must register with
the neighborhood prefect.
The international community's opprobrium, along with the military regime's
incompetence, played a huge part in getting the generals controlling one of the
world's most repressive regimes to the negotiating table. A week after Daw Aung
San Suu Kyi was released from 20 months of detention - basically for trying to
buy a train ticket out of Rangoon - some companies and aid organizations are
already calling to lift the various sanctions against aiding and trading with
the regime. Only the vigilance of the international community and the threat of
continued opprobrium will keep the generals talking with Daw Suu towards a
genuine and irreversible political transition.
Burma's military, founded by Daw Suu's father, General Aung San, was once
beloved and revered for liberating Burma from both British and Japanese colonial
rule. Today even without an external threat, the Burmese army is one of the la
rgest armed forces in the region. It will undoubtedly continue to play a major
role in the country's future, but it must so do in its historical role as
protectors, rather than predators of the people.
Non-Burmese who follow world events are usually entranced by the long
struggle for democracy in Burma because of the charisma and elegance of Daw Aung
San Suu Kyi. Few are aware of the hardship and daily indignities endured by the
average Burmese, the quiet courage of those languishing in prison or the humor
and creativity of citizens who have learned to survive the system. Daw Suu is
the first to acknowledge this. She told a reporter in one of her first
interviews after her release, "Many have suffered more than I have, much more. I
don't have the right to complain."
Largely unknown to the international community, Burma's most prominent
political prisoner after Daw Suu is Min Ko Naing. This is the nom de guerre
meaning "Conqueror of Kings", of Paw U Tun, the fiery student leader of the
nationwide uprising in the summer of 1988. Throughout the 1980s, as a student at
the Rangoon Arts and Sciences University, Min Ko Naing had somehow managed to
build a nationwide political dissident network in the dangerous shadow of one of
the world's most watchful police states. In 1988 his passion and oratory at
rallies brought out millions of Burmese into the streets. Min Ko Naing was
arrested early in 1989 and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Although his
sentence was reduced to 10 years-now completed-he remains in jail in ill health.
Though suffering in solitary confinement for most of these years, Min Ko Naing
is defiant. On the rare occasions he was able to send a message outside, he
simply said, "Don't give up."
Poet and essayist U Tin Moe, who is in his 60s, fared better. In 1991, the
year Daw Aung Suu Kyi received the Nobel Peace Prize, U Tin Moe, who headed a
committee of Daw Suu's National League for Democracy (NLD), was arrested and
later sentenced to four years in prison. In jail U Tin Moe was prohibited from
possessing any reading or writing materials, so he was comforted by the
discovery of one of his short poems scratched on the dirty walls by a previous
prisoner, a poem for which he was famous: "The cigarette's burnt down, the sun
is brown, will someone please take me home now."
U Tin Moe's colleague and contemporary, U Win Tin, who is still in jail,
once expounded publicly on the poem's relevance: He said: "There are large
numbers of important people who don't know that they should say 'Please take me
home now.' Today there are many, many political problems in our country, so many
insurmountable difficulties, so many unspeakable matters - and why? Because if
some leading people knew when their cigar was burnt down, when the sun was brown
and knew when they should say 'Please take me home', then our country's politics
would not have gotten into such a mess."
U Tin Moe wrote another poem that greatly annoyed the authorities. It was
about Dr Michael Aris, Daw Suu's British husband, the renowned Tibetologist who
died of cancer in England soon after the junta refused a visa for him to go to
Burma one last time to say goodbye to his wife. When the authorities started
warning him against helping the NLD, U Tin Moe decided he was too old to survive
another possible incarceration and decided to leave the country and join his
daughter who lived in Belgium.
Obtaining passports in Burma is not a civic right. What's more, passports
cost exorbitant brokerage fees and require cunning to get one, especially for
national treasures like poet laureates who are barred from leaving the country
without permission. Fortunately for U Tin Moe, neither the passport broker nor
the immigration officials had enough literary savvy to recognize the poet's real
name - U Ba Gyan - which his passport carried. No one even knew he had fled. The
escape was discovered when they heard him being interviewed on the Burmese
Service of the BBC.
The Min Ko Naings and U Tin Moes of Burma deserve to see their struggle
through to the proper end. If the international community is genuinely
interested in helping to end Burma's 40 year old nightmare, Burma policy among
the major players should be coordinated, consistent and clear. Europe, the
United States and Japan at least should have a common position on Burma that
promotes a genuine transition to eventual civilian rule. For example, there
should be no major aid or investment in Burma until all political prisoners have
been released, freedom of _expression_ and association is guaranteed. In other
words, until real and irreversible political and economic reform has taken
place.
Burma today is beset by a host of problems after forty years of military
dictatorship: A ruined economy, a devastated education system, political
uncertainty and a burgeoning hiv-aids epidemic. But the country is not
Afghanistan or East Timor. It is blessed with a vast abundance of natural
resources, and even after decades of neglect, possesses a bright, youthful
population who are tired of civil war, hungry for knowledge, and eager to rejoin
the world. Burma is in an enviable position to draw from the successes of other
transitions and learn to avoid the pitfalls of others.
Maureen Aung-Thwin is Director of the Burma Project and Southeast
Asia Initiative of the Open Society Institute.
----------------------------------------------------------------- The Japan Times: May 12,
2002
Japan pledges money to
Myanmar
BANGKOK (Kyodo) Japan pledged Friday to provide 628 million yen in grant
aid to Myanmar this year to finance the restoration of a key hydroelectric power
plant.
An agreement on the aid package was signed in Yangon on Friday, a Japanese official said. The money is earmarked for the restoration of six power turbines in the
Baluchaung hydroelectric power station in Kayah State. The entire project is
estimated at between 3 billion yen and 3.5 billion yen.
The Japanese government unlocked the aid commitment four days after the
Myanmar military government released opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from
nearly 20 years of house arrest.
A senior Japanese official said Japan hopes the restoration work at the
Baluchaung hydroelectric power station, which accounts for about 30 percent of
the country's power supply, will foster democratization in the country.
The Japanese government approved the aid package last month, but it held up
the grant until the Myanmar junta decided to free Suu Kyi.
Japanese Ambassador to Myanmar Shigeru Tsumori met with Suu Kyi at her
residence in Yangon on Friday morning to brief her on Japanese aid policy to
Myanmar, Japanese officials said.
Apart from helping with the hydroelectric project, Japan last month
extended 792 million yen to Myanmar, earmarked for upgrading medical equipment
at three hospitals in Yangon.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Scotsman - Sunday, 12th May 2002
Battle to rebuild a shattered Burma Suu Kyi emerges from house arrest to discover her country on its knees DAMIEN McELROY IN RANGOON IN THE close confines of a dusty second-floor office filled with yellowing
scrapbooks, Aung San Suu Kyi cuts an incongruously sophisticated figure.
Not a speck of grime or a hint of the clamour touches the remarkably neat
and graceful woman who is celebrated abroad as a champion of democracy and
adored at home as the icon of hope for a better Burma.
After emerging from more than a year and a half of house arrest last week,
it was straight down to work for the leader of Burma?s opposition.
With a talks process about to get under way with the generals who run
Burma, Suu Kyi has a party to build and a rapport to restore with a nation she
hopes to lead into the fold of liberal democracies.
The scale of the task is immense. To casual viewers in the West, the Nobel
laureate appears immensely sophisticated, but that quality in Suu Kyi stands in
stark contrast to the benighted state of Burma.
Air conditioners temper the stultifying humidity in Suu Kyi?s office in the
wooden shed that serves as the headquarters of the National League for
Democracy. Otherwise the surroundings resemble a museum exhibit of a party
meeting room at the tail end of the colonial era.
A single bakelite phone sits on a worn desk. Manning it is U Lwin, one of
the three septuagenarian ?uncles? Suu Kyi has relied on for advice and strategic
support since she entered politics in 1988.
"Outside Burma they have e-mail," he told me. "I?ve never tried it. I?ve
never even seen what it looks like. It?s supposed to be wonderfully quick and
informative." Modestly, U Lwin tells me he used to work for the finance
ministry. Later it became clear he was finance minister for six years.
A defector from the military regime in the late 1980s, he has seen the
ruination of his country by the superstition-ridden clique of generals who have
led Burma as a pariah nation since the 1960s.
Rangoon was once a jewel of the empire in the Far East. Its colonnaded
mansions stood robust against the setting sun, symbolising commercial vigour in
a land endowed with rich harvests, unlimited teak and bottomless mines.
The remnants of colonial prosperity are almost gone. At the Anglican
cathedral of the Holy Trinity, the small band of worshippers still belt out
?Onward Christian Soldiers?, surrounded by the memorial plaques erected by
long-dead regiments. But empty pews outnumber worshippers and the stained
windows are cracked.
A few miles away, Moses Samuels guards Rangoon?s only synagogue, a
rabbi-less meeting place for the last 20 members of a community of 2,500
traders, depleting by the month as the country sinks further into the economic
mire.
"There were plenty of Jews. We had a school, the upstairs of the synagogue
was full with women on a Friday evening and the gents were downstairs," said
Samuels, 51. "I will soon send from here two or three families. Most haven?t got
jobs. Business is slowing down and they want to go to Israel."
The lack of opportunity in Burma is a sad fact of life for most of its 50
million people. Twelve years have been wasted since the NLD offered the Burmese
their first clear opportunity of an alternative destiny. Elections in 1990 were
annulled and the party?s base decimated.
The first task tackled by Suu Kyi was to restore the presence of the party
across the country so that if the opportunity comes again, the NLD can bind the
nation into a new era.
Burma is an incredibly fractious state. Not only is the military locked in
confrontation with Suu Kyi but ethnic and religious differences have grown
sharper since Britain bound upper and lower Burma into a single package ripe for
independence at the end of the Second World War. Vast tracts of the country are
run as fiefdoms by tribal warlords, sustained by the profits of selling opium
poppy and illegally logged teak across the mountainous borders.
A new settlement for a post-dictatorship will be made or broken on knitting
together a country where the army has exhausted its ability to break insurgents
and instead resorted to ceasefire agreements.
The only feasible figure capable of rallying the disparate elements is Suu
Kyi. The daughter of Burma?s revolutionary hero, General Aung San, who was
assassinated on the eve of independence in 1948, she represents a different
version of the state that the military has ruled for 38 ruinous years.
The generals and Suu Kyi, having embraced as negotiating partners for the
future prospects of the country, is a partnership between two poles. The army
cannot be wished back to barracks, but Suu Kyi is always keen to remind her
interlocutors that she is the daughter of Burma?s foremost military hero.
The second, less predictable factor, will be how well Suu Kyi can rebuild
the NLD to act like the post-independence Congress in India or the current ANC
in South Africa - a dominant party setting the course for the nation within a
democratic framework.
Suu Kyi has to remind Burmese, after years of slanderous propaganda, that
she is at once a member of the majority and acceptable to the other races that
make up the nation.
Like Suu Kyi, the people of Burma have sought refuge in their beliefs to
cope with the oppressive state system of control. Reintegration with the world
will bring many painful choices.
"The Burmese people have survived the situation both in politics and the
economy by being steeped in religion," said one of Suu Kyi?s former aides. "When
modernity comes the idea will be to be aggressive. But grasping for money is
accorded the status of a form of social degradation - it will be a very
different world."
A new Burma will have the advantage of starting with the goodwill of the
outside world as billions and billions of dollars will be unleashed, said an EU
ambassador.
Managing the transition wisely will be an even greater test of Suu Kyi?s
stature than the long negotiations to ease the junta out of power.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Power Report
Burma: Japan Extends 628m Yen in
Grant Aid for Hydro Project
BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific - Political ( May 11, 2002 ) Text of report in English by Japanese news agency Kyodo
Bangkok, 11 May: Japan pledged Friday [10 May] to provide 628m yen in grant
aid to Myanmar [Burma] this year to finance the restoration of a key
hydroelectric power plant in the country.
An agreement on the aid package was signed in Yangon [Rangoon] on Friday, a
Japanese official said.
The money is earmarked for the restoration of six power turbines in the
Baluchaung hydroelectric power station in Kayah State. The entire project is
estimated at 3.0-3.5bn yen.
The Japanese government unlocked the aid commitment four days after the
Myanmar military government released Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi
from nearly 20 years of house arrest [as received].
A senior Japanese official said Japan hopes the restoration work at the
Baluchaung hydroelectric power station, which accounts for about 30 per cent of
power supply in Myanmar, would foster the democratization process in the
country.
The Japanese government approved the aid package last month but held up the
grant until the Myanmar junta decided to free Suu Kyi.
Japanese Ambassador to Myanmar Shigeru Tsumori met with Suu Kyi at her
residence in Yangon Friday morning to brief her on Japanese aid policy to
Myanmar, Japanese officials said.
Apart from the hydroelectric project, last month Japan extended 792m yen to
Myanmar earmarked for upgrading medical equipment at three hospitals in
Yangon.
----------------------------------------------------------------- The Independent
Burmese junta hints at power
sharing deal with Suu Kyi
By Peter Popham in Rangoon 12 May 2002 Burma's ruling junta and Aung San Suu Kyi, the democracy leader released
from house arrest here last week, have reached a secret agreement on power
sharing, a Burmese political analyst with connections to the regime told The
Independent on Sunday yesterday.
"The government is prepared to go along with recognition of the election
result of 1990," ? a landslide win by Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy
(NLD) which the regime refused to endorse ? "but will retain veto power," he
said.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, he added: "I believe a lot of details
have been agreed. They are now putting finishing touches to the agreement. The
government also insists that they will not accept the dismemberment of the Union
of Burma." Burma, or Myanmar as the regime calls it, has many ethnic minorities
in addition to the Burmans of the lowland plains.
As evidence of an agreement he pointed to the fact that, in contrast to her
high-profile activities after she was released from house arrest in 1995, when
large crowds gathered every day to hear her speak, this time Ms Suu Kyi has
merely shuttled quietly between her home and the NLD party office, with side
trips to an aunt, an abbot and a pagoda. "I don't think she would have agreed
not to hold mass meetings without concessions on the part of the government," he
said.
Ms Suu Kyi herself has said nothing about any such agreement, but she spoke
to the IoS of the disputed 1990 election in a way that suggests a new
flexibility. Until now the NLD had always insisted that the regime must hand
over power on the basis of that result. Last week she said: "We are not holding
on to the 1990 elections in the sense of using it to gain power... what we are
concerned about is the democratic principle, not so much the question of who
holds power. Which means there is obviously room for negotiations as to how they
choose to honour the results of the 1990 election."
If a form of words can be agreed by which the regime "honours" the result
of the 1990 election without handing over power, the way will be open further
down the road for fresh elections. Ms Suu Kyi herself hinted at such a
development. It was put to her that as 12 years have passed, she cannot now
claim to speak for the Burmese people. "It's fair to say that," she replied ?
but added: "And who's to say we won't get a bigger majority this time?"
Talk of an agreement is certainly news. Nearly a week after Suu Kyi's
release, Western diplomats in the impoverished south-east Asian country remain
unconvinced that the military regime is ready to make meaningful changes. "Is it
a developing political situation?" one of them queried sharply. "Nothing
concrete has been achieved. There are no easy answers here. The regime have dug
themselves a very deep hole. Coming out of that hole is going to be
difficult."
Rangoon is a confusing place. With its lakes, dense woods and temples, it
is perhaps the most beautiful capital in Asia. The mid-1990s boom gave it a
smattering of modern hotels and a few business towers. And despite the bubble
bursting, the city today remains sleek and seductive.
But beneath the beguiling surface lies a chaotic and deeply corrupt
reality. Many hospitals cannot afford the drugs they need, teachers at some
state schools demand fees from students because their salaries are not paid, the
power supply is fitful, inflation is galloping, the economy is run for the
convenience of the generals' businessmen cronies. Intrepid outsiders tempted to
invest routinely lose their shirts.
But pressure has been building on the generals to move in the direction of
democratic change. The world has moved on since 1995, the last time major reform
was in the air. Today all south-east Asian countries are firmly behind Razali
Ishmail, the UN special envoy who brokered the deal that brought about Suu Kyi's
release. The veteran Malaysian diplomat and businessman is trusted by Suu Kyi
and her colleagues; and his closeness to Mahathir Mohammed, Malaysia's Prime
Minister, has given him particular clout with the regime. The Burmese generals
identify closely with Dr Mahathir because of his resolute independence from the
West.
"I think the process is irreversible," says one foreign insider. "The
question now is the pace. Time is not on the government's side ? but nor is it
on Suu Kyi's, nor on the side of the people. All need to go quite fast."
----------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - Sunday 12 May 2002
Suu Kyi told to watch her
back
Subin Khuenkaew
The Shan State Army yesterday warned Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu
Kyi to be on her guard following her release from house arrest.
Speaking from an SSA base opposite Pang Ma Pha district of Mae Hong Son,
Col Yod Suek said the release left her vulnerable to attack.
``The Burmese junta would simply say that it is impossible to protect
everyone, so she should be very careful and not take any chances,'' he
said.
While congratulating Mrs Suu Kyi on her freedom, the SSA leader dismissed
the release as a tactic by Rangoon to ease pressure from the international
community over its alleged rights violations and support of drug
trafficking.
Citing his army's fresh clashes with Burmese troops, Col Yod Suek said the
world should not place high hopes on national reconciliation in the
country.
He said while six ethnic groups had agreed to a ceasefire, they had yet to
lay down their arms.
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