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BURMA RELATED NEWS - June 02,
2003.
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HEADLINES
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AFP - Aung San Suu
Kyi held in Yangon as universities, party offices closed
AFP - France
reiterates call for release of Myanmar opposition leader
AFP - India's Big
Eye scours skies for jets, missiles from China, Myanmar
AFP - Germany
condemns Myanmar's arrest of pro-democracy leader
AFP - Japan calls
on Myanmar to ensure political freedom after Suu Kyi detained
Reuters - Australia
calls on Myanmar to release Suu Kyi
Reuters - Suu Kyi
in custody as military cracks down
AP - Myanmar
Crackdown Turns Back Clock On Reconciliation
AP - Myanmar Turns
Away Suu Kyi Visitors
AP - Myanmar
opposition leaders, ethnic rebels dismayed at Suu Kyi
AP - Thai leader
says ``whole world'' concerned over Myanmar crackdown
BBC News - Burma
moves to stifle protest
BBC News -
Hardliners winning Burma debate
FCO - O'BRIEN CALLS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF BURMESE OPPOSITION LEADER AUNG SAN SUU KYI
(01/06/03)
SMH - Regime
broadens crackdown as Suu Kyi blamed for unrest
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Monday June 2, 3:26
PM
Aung San Suu Kyi held in Yangon as universities, party offices
closed
Myanmar's junta was holding democracy leader Aung
San Suu Kyi in detention here as part of a crackdown that also saw her party's
offices shut across the country and universities closed, sources
said.
The 1991 Nobel peace laureate, who was arrested in northern Myanmar
at the weekend, was brought back to the capital early Sunday with a military
escort and taken to a military intelligence guest house, a party source told AFP
Monday.
"We saw a convoy enter into the annex of Insein prison. Aung San
Suu Kyi was separated from the rest of the entourage and taken to a military
intelligence guesthouse in downtown Yangon," the National League for Democracy
source told AFP.
At the time of her arrest, Aung San Suu Kyi had been on
a month-long political tour, one of a series taken since her release from house
arrest last May.
Another 18 members of her entourage were also put under
"protective custody" after clashes between her supporters and a pro-junta mob in
Sagaing division Friday left four dead and 50 injured, according to the
military.
Her entourage were believed to be detained at the notorious
Insein jail Monday, while the entire NLD leadership remained under house arrest
in Yangon.
All the party's offices, some 100 branches dotted across the
country, had been closed, another NLD source said.
"But the signboards
that she (Aung San Suu Kyi) has travelled all over the country to erect have
been left intact," he added.
The military regime also ordered all
universities and colleges to be closed from Monday, a routine move in times of
political upheaval as the campuses are considered potential hotbeds for a
popular uprising.
Yangon was calm and operating normally Monday, but with
only limited information on the incident appearing in the official press,
rumours swirled around the capital as residents tried to keep abreast of the
unfolding developments.
Myanmar's Thailand-based government in exile, the
National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB), said it had learned
that up to 70 people may have been killed during the weekend clashes.
It
said that about 500 armed soldiers and an unknown numbers of prisoners had
attacked a motorcade of about 250 NLD supporters, during which government
soldiers opened fire.
The NCBUG said Aung San Suu Kyi suffered a serious
head injury, while NLD vice chairman Tin Oo fell into a ditch but was not
harmed. The group also alleged that more than 200 of the pro-democracy
supporters were arrested.
Their report was not able to be independently
verified and no comment from the military government was available.
Aung
San Suu Kyi had been travelling extensively across the country since her release
from 19 months under house arrest last May, working to reopen party offices and
rejuvenate her party.
Tensions had risen sharply on the most recent trip,
as supporters repeatedly clashed with members of the junta-sponsored Union
Solidarity Development Association.
The charismatic politician had
already complained of mounting harassment by the junta on her visits across the
country, during which thousands of adoring fans flocked to see
her.
Britain and France have called on the Myanmar junta to release Aung
San Suu Kyi immediately and to begin genuine talks with the pro-democracy
opposition.
--------------------------------------------------------------
France reiterates call for release of Myanmar opposition
leader
Mon
Jun 2, 9:13 PM ET
PARIS, June 2 (AFP) - France on Monday renewed a call for the
immediate release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, detained by
Myanmar's military junta.
"According to information reaching us since
yesterday there is uncertainty over the fate of Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi and a
certain number of National League for Democracy (NLD) leaders," foreign ministry
spokesman Francois Rivasseau told a press briefing.
Myanmar's military
junta said Aung San Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel peace laureate, was taken into
"protective custody" in the north of the country at the weekend following
pro-democracy protests that turned violent Friday.
France already
reacted Sunday to Aung San Suu Kyi's detention in a communique on Sunday.
"We reiterate our call for her to immediately regain her full and entire
freedom of movement, as well as the leaders of the National League for
Democracy, detained or under house arrest," Rivasseau said, adding that Paris
also demanded the reopening of NLD offices in the southeast Asian country.
At the time of her arrest, Aung San Suu Kyi had been on a month-long
political tour of northern Myanmar, one of a series she has made since she was
released from house arrest a year ago.
Another 18 members of her
entourage were also detained, believed to be held at the notorious Insein jail,
while the entire leadership of the opposition NLD was under house arrest in the
capital Yangon.
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India's Big Eye scours skies for jets, missiles from
China, Myanmar
Mon Jun 2, 1:45 AM ET
ON INDIA-CHINA
BORDER (AFP) - Some 50 men in a dark
room poured red-eyed over consoles as loudspeakers gave out details of two
"enemy bombers" with fighter jet escorts screaming into Indian airspace from a
Chinese airfield in Tibet.
"Fire controllers" scrambled interceptor jets
with cannons and rockets from one of the 19 eastern Indian military airbases
dotting the Himalayan foothills and "shot up" the two intruders before they
entered an imaginary "weapons release line" to attack plum targets.
Wargame over, journalists visiting the secret air defense radar unit for
the first time cheered but the personnel manning the facility were as tense as
if in real combat.
"Every minute of the day, 365 days a year they are
scanning skies beyond our boundaries," said Group Captain Raja Singh, chief
commander of the unit, one of India's strategic big eyes on its 1,900-kilometre
(1,178-mile) border with China.
Journalists were told not to photograph,
take notes or reveal the radar's details, but Singh said it was the brain of a
complex air defense chain monitoring possible intrusions into the far eastern
Indian frontier states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Manipur from Chinese
territory or Myanmar.
Singh's Air Defense Direction Control (ADDC) looks
500 kilometers (310 miles) into China with a 10-tonne revolving mast and is the
collecting bin of data from a chain of monitors which begins with soldiers on
frontier posts.
"The ADDC selects the weapons to use from a choice of
surface-to-air-missiles, aircraft, air defence artillery, et cetera," he said of
war assets worth 8.3 billion US dollars deployed in India's seven far eastern
states which border Bhutan, Bangladesh, China and Myanmar.
"We cannot
let down our guard," he said, apparently dismissive of latest efforts for
rapprochement which led Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Chinese
President Hu Jintao to hold talks for the time Saturday during their trips to
Europe.
Vajpayee, whose orders to carry out nuclear tests in May 1998
soured ties once again with China, is also set to pay a state visit to Beijing
later this month -- the first by an Indian premier since 1993.
India and
China fought a bitter border war in 1962 and India still accuses Beijing of
occupying 38,000 square kilometers (14,672 square miles) of territory in
Kashmir. China, meanwhile, lays claim to 90,000 square kilometers
(34,749 square miles) of Arunachal Pradesh state.
Indian intelligence
sources allege that China in recent months has helped Myanmar set up listening
posts along the border.
ADDC commander Singh, who individually has the
power to trigger a war, cited lessons from the conflict in Iraq where US air
defense missiles destroyed friendly British aircraft.
"We profile the
intruder to avoid friendly fire casualties and also to avoid wasteful air
efforts."
Singh conceded the role of India's air defense was under
strain from new military technologies now with China and Pakistan, which has
fought three wars with India since 1947.
"Ballistic missiles, supersonic
jets and smart weapons have created a greater role for air defense and out here
we are looking at an active role of causing maximum attrition," Singh said.
The ADDC facility, manned by 300 air force and other personnel is one of
India's six air defense zones which are integrated in war with the navy and the
army.
Sources told AFP that
organizations such as Singh's ADDC are a key part of India's newly set-up
command and control.
Just as Vajpayee and Hu were meeting in
Russia, India's defense ministry released its annual report which described the
ballistic and nuclear power balance between the Asian neighbors as
"asymmetrical," favoring China.
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Germany condemns Myanmar's arrest of pro-democracy
leader
Mon
Jun 2, 8:01 AM ET
BERLIN, June 2 (AFP) - Germany on Monday condemned the detention
of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a foreign ministry spokesman said.
"The federal government condemns this new detention of the opposition
leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi and other opposition
figures," the spokesman, Walter Lindner, told reporters.
"We call on the
government of Myanmar to release them swiftly. Furthermore, we expect the
leadership in Myanmar to take all steps to allow the opposition to resume its
work," he said, adding that Germany was monitoring the situation in the Asian
country closely.
Myanmar's military junta said Aung San Suu Kyi, the
1991 Nobel peace laureate, was taken into "protective custody" in the north of
the country at the weekend following pro-democracy protests that turned violent
Friday.
At the time of her arrest, Aung San Suu Kyi had been on a
month-long political tour of northern Myanmar, one of a series she has made
since she was released from house arrest a year ago.
Another 18 members
of her entourage were also detained, believed to be held at the notorious Insein
jail, while the entire leadership of the opposition National League for
Democracy was under house arrest in the capital Yangon.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Japan calls on Myanmar to ensure political freedom after
Suu Kyi detained
TOKYO, June 2 (AFP) - The Japanese government expressed concern
Monday at the detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and called on
Myanmar's junta to ensure political freedom.
"We are closely monitoring
developments surrounding Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi and other officials from the
National League for Democracy (NLD) with concern," Japanese foreign ministry
spokesman Hatsuhita Takashima said in a statement.
"Our nation hopes the
government of Myanmar... will swiftly normalise the situation, including
ensuring freedom of political activities."
The government said Aung San
Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel peace laureate, was taken into "protective custody" in
northern Myanmar at the weekend following pro-democracy protests that turned
violent on Friday.
She has been moved to the capital Yangon and is being
held in a military intelligence guest house, an NLD source told AFP.
Myanmar's military junta has closed some 100 NLD offices as well as
universities around the country, according to NLD sources.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Monday June 2, 3:38 PM
Australia calls on Myanmar to
release Suu Kyi
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia has called on Myanmar to
release opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi after the pro-democracy leader was
taken into custody in Yangon as part of a broad crackdown on dissent.
"There can be no justification for the continued detention of Aung San
Suu Kyi and her supporters and I urge that they be released immediately,"
Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told parliament on Monday.
The government called in Myanmar's ambassador in Canberra to explain its
concerns abut Suu Kyi's detention.
Australia's ambassador in Yangon was
also to relay his country's concerns to the authorities there.
Australia
joined the United Nations, Japan and Thailand in expressing concern about the
situation in the Southeast Asian country.
Myanmar's ruling military
stopped thousands of university students from attending classes on Monday. Over
the weekend most of the offices of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD)
around the country were closed after the Nobel peace laureate and other
opposition leaders were detained.
Downer said he hoped the scheduled
visit of U.N. special envoy Razali Ismail to Myanmar on Friday would help move
forward talks between the military and the opposition on the country's political
future.
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Monday June 2, 8:42 PM
Suu Kyi in custody as military
cracks down
By Aung Hla Tun
YANGON
(Reuters) - Myanmar pro-democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi is in custody in Yangon as the ruling military stops
thousands of university students from attending classes as part of broad
crackdown on dissent.
The closure of all universities and colleges,
traditionally a hotbed of unrest, was announced late on Sunday and many students
had not heard the news.
Education and security officials turned students
away at the gates of institutions on the outskirts of the capital where they
were moved in the late 1990s after earlier demonstrations.
"They asked
us to go back home and said we would be informed when classes will start," said
a young woman outside Yangon University East where dozens of students were
milling about.
Most of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD)
offices around the country were closed after the Nobel peace laureate and other
opposition leaders touring the north of the country were detained on Friday.
The military says she was taken into "protective custody" after four
people were killed in clashes between her supporters and pro-government groups.
Suu Kyi's whereabouts were not known but a junta official said she was
in a government guesthouse in Yangon.
Other NLD leaders have been
confined at home with their telephone lines cut. Western diplomats trying to
visit have been turned away by security officials.
INTERNATIONAL
CONCERN
The United Nations, Japan, Australia, the European
Union and neighbouring Thailand, where hundreds of Myanmar students live in
exile, expressed grave concern.
"We strongly hope that the government of
Myanmar will take a moderate response and that the situation will quickly be
restored to normal," a Japanese foreign ministry official said.
Japan,
once a major aid donor, has shown more willingness to engage the generals than
Western countries. The United States and European Union maintain aid and trade
sanctions.
E.U. External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten urged the
junta to release Suu Kyi and resume dialogue.
"The E.U. has recently
renewed its sanctions against Burma/Myanmar, and has made clear that these may
be strengthened later this year," he said.
Australian Foreign Minister
Alexander Downer said the detentions were unjustifiable and his government had
summoned Myanmar's ambassador to explain the situation.
Suu Kyi was
released from 19 months house arrest in May last year and has made several trips
into the provinces to meet party faithful.
Party officials had recently
complained of harassment by pro-military groups while the military has expressed
concern over the large crowds greeting Suu Kyi, accusing her supporters of
causing "traffic jams and commotion".
Apart from the confusion at the
gates of Yangon colleges, life appeared normal. An education ministry source
said the universities were closed "indefinitely".
Most universities and
colleges began their second semester on May 1. The remainder were to have opened
on Monday. Universities have been closed several times since the bloody
suppression of a student-led, pro-democracy uprising in 1988.
Suu Kyi
emerged as pro-democracy leader during those protests. Her NLD won 1990
elections but was denied power. More than 1,000 NLD members are in jail.
Diplomats said they feared the new detentions could deal a death blow to
stalled talks between the generals and the opposition, which began in 2000. U.N.
special envoy Razali Ismail, who brokered the talks, is due in Myanmar on
Friday.
Suu Kyi spent six years under house arrest from 1989 to 1995.
The military has ruled Myanmar, also known as Burma, since 1962.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Monday June 2, 7:00 PM
Myanmar Crackdown Turns Back
Clock On Reconciliation
BANGKOK (AP)--Violence broke out and at least four people
were killed. Nobel Peace laureate Ang Sang Suu Kyi was taken back in custody
along with key supporters. Her party's offices were shut and so too the nation's
universities.
Beyond that, the details of the latest crackdown on
pro-democracy forces by Myanmar's military government are hazy.
But the
consequences already seem clear - hopes for political reform and reconciliation
in this Southeast Asian nation have been set back years as are the chances of
reviving the shattered economy.
The past weekend's events ensure that
the purse strings of much-needed international aid - pulled tight by
industrialized nations after the military's violent suppression of pro-democracy
demonstrations over the past decade - aren't loosened in the foreseeable future.
The circumstances for the swoop against Suu Kyi, who won the 1991 Nobel
Peace Prize, is unclear. So too is her present location - officials say only
that she is being kept in a "safe place" in the capital Yangon.
The
generals claim her supporters instigated a fracas in northern Myanmar Friday
night in which at least four people were killed.
But exiled opposition
groups maintain the violence broke out when a motorcade carrying Suu Kyi was
ambushed by government-backed thugs.
Later, Suu Kyi and her colleagues
were taken into what the government described as "protective custody" - a move
that seems to have worried even those in Asia and elsewhere who had been
advocating encouragement, rather than force, to get the junta to move ahead with
reconciliation.
The prime minister of neighboring Thailand, Thaksin
Shinawatra - who has long campaigned softly for better relations with his
neighbor - said Monday "the whole world" is concerned about Suu Kyi's detention,
and that the junta should bring the situation "back to normal."
U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the move against Suu Kyi underlined the
"urgent need" for government and pro-democracy forces to restart talks.
Annan's special envoy to Myanmar, veteran Malaysian diplomat Razali
Ismail, is scheduled to make his 10th visit to the country Friday, even though
his plans for a solution seem in tatters.
In late 2000, he brokered
closed-door reconciliation talks between the government and Suu Kyi.
They led to the May 2002 release of Suu Kyi from 19 months of house
arrest - she was previously detained from 1989 to 1995.
Several hundred
political prisoners were freed and previously closed NLD party offices were
gradually reopened. Suu Kyi was allowed freedom of movement previously denied to
her.
But, after a hopeful start, the process came to a standstill last
year and her arrest on the weekend seems to have sunk the world body's
"confidence-building" measures altogether.
"The latest arrests have
proven that the role and efforts of Razali during the past few years are totally
a failure," said Somchai Homla-or of the Bangkok-based human rights group, Forum
Asia.
He said the U.N. and the international community should review the
policy of "constructive engagement" - making positive measures toward the junta
to encourage reform - because it has "shown its insincerity in seeking national
reconciliation."
Although Myanmar's junta has never been averse to
applying broad, heavy-handed strokes of repression, its actions this time around
seem particularly self-defeating.
Over
the past two years, the regime has taken steps to shake Myanmar's reputation as
a pariah state and earn some credit in the international community.
These included allowing visits by U.N. human rights and labor
investigators, as well as by two investigators from the human rights group
Amnesty International, a leading critic, for its first-ever official visit.
After a 10-day visit that ended in early February, Amnesty's researchers
said human rights in Myanmar continue to "fall short of international law" but
are improving.
The government welcomed Amnesty's mission, calling it a
"positive step" toward developing a dialogue on human rights in the country.
With the economy in dire straits, it might also have been expected to
heed the warnings, advice and cajoling of developed countries who control the
tap of foreign aid.
In March, British Foreign Office Minister Mike
O'Brien told Razali of his "concern over the deteriorating economic,
humanitarian and political situation" in Myanmar, which also is known as Burma.
He said Britain's "policy toward the regime will have to toughen unless
the Burmese authorities show real commitment to reform."
In April,
former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori reportedly gave junta leader Senior
Gen. Than Shwe a letter from current Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi urging the
ruling junta to undertake economic and democratic reforms.
Japan, the
largest aid donor to Myanmar, has generally taken a softer line than have
Western countries such as the U.S., preferring to suggest incentives for reform
rather than using sanctions to pressure the military.
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Monday June 2, 9:09 PM
Myanmar opposition leaders, ethnic rebels dismayed at Suu
Kyi
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) _ Myanmar's opposition and ethnic rebel
leaders expressed dismay Monday over the government's detention of pro-democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the closing of her party's offices and the suspension
of classes at universities.
Suu Kyi and 19 members of her National
League for Democracy party were taken into ``protective custody'' after violence
late Friday during a political tour of northern Myanmar by the Nobel Peace
laureate. Four people died and 50 were injured in the clash, the government
said.
Senior NLD leaders have been placed under house arrest in the
capital, Yangon, and their telephone lines have been cut, witnesses have said on
condition of anonymity.
``It is a very unpleasant situation,'' said Ba
Thein, president of the Karen National Union, an ethnic rebel group.
He
said events of the past few days have shown that the ruling junta, known as the
State Peace and Development Council, or SPDC, is uninterested in moving Myanmar
forward toward democracy.
``This proves that the SPDC is not willing to
solve the political problem, so it is very difficult to resolve the problem of
the ethnic nationalities as well,'' he said, referring to his and other groups'
demands for autonomy.
A spokeswoman for the Shan State Army, who like
the Karen have been fighting the central government since Myanmar achieved
independence from Britain in 1948, said the crackdown on the opposition
indicates the junta will stop at nothing to retain power.
Unlike more
than a dozen other ethnic rebel groups, the Karen and the Shan have refused a
cease-fire with the government, demanding a political settlement first.
``We are so shocked to learn that the SPDC has arrested Aung San Suu
Kyi,'' said Shan spokeswoman Khur Hsen. ``This arrest has shown that the
government is not sincere in negotiating and is not sincere in its desire for
national reconciliation.''
She added that Myanmar's ruling generals
``want to continue holding absolute power as long as they can.''
Khun
Tun Oo, chairman of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy, a legal
opposition party based inside Myanmar, said the detentions were ``a step in the
wrong direction. We, all the democracy forces, believe that the only way out is
dialogue.''
Another veteran Myanmar opposition politician, speaking on
condition of anonymity, said the ``closing down of NLD offices all over the
country and the suspension of classes at universities do not augur well.''
Soe Aung of the National Council of the Union of Burma, a coalition of
exiled political and ethnic minority groups opposed to the junta, said Sunday
the detention of Suu Kyi and crackdown on the NLD was ``very worrying.''
``It looks like they've started an all-out war against the NLD,'' he
said. ``We are very concerned about the security of the NLD and its members ...
if there is no action taken (by the world community), it will go to a worse
situation than before.''
He said Monday that the group had received
reports from Myanmar suggesting that the death toll from Friday's violence may
have been as high as 70 _ significantly higher than the four deaths reported by
the government.
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Myanmar Turns Away Suu Kyi Visitors
Mon Jun
2, 3:48 AM ET
By AYE AYE WIN,
Associated Press Writer
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - Myanmar authorities turned away students
from universities on Monday, the first day of a new semester, suspending classes
just days they detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and closed her
party's offices.
The crackdown on Suu Kyi and her National League for
Democracy party follows a violent clash Friday between her supporters and
thousands of pro-government protesters, which officials said left four people
dead and 50 injured in northern Myanmar.
University sources said on
condition of anonymity Sunday that authorities had decided to suspend classes at
all universities and colleges under the Ministry of Education.
No reason
was given for the suspension, and there was no immediate official announcement.
Myanmar's university campuses in the past have been hotbeds of
pro-democracy activism. After intermittent closures since 1988, they were shut
down after 1996 student demonstrations and remained closed until mid-2000.
The latest order applies to institutions under the education ministry,
which controls most of the country's colleges and universities. Universities and
colleges under other ministries, many of them vocational institutions, are not
believed to be affected.
Students at the gates of the University of
Foreign Language in Yangon said no prior notice was given about the suspension
of classes.
"I am surprised and disappointed with the closure. I am
about the get my degree in another four months," said a university student who
asked not to be named.
It was not immediately known whether the closures
were related to the ongoing crackdown on Suu Kyi and the NLD.
The junta
said Saturday that it had placed Suu Kyi and 19 members of her party into
"protective custody" after a clash between her supporters and thousands of
pro-government protesters in northern Myanmar. Four people were killed and 50
injured in the violence.
The scheduled reopening of the country's
primary and high schools, which was earlier delayed by authorities because of
"intense summer heat this year" and to ease parents' concerns about SARS, has
been further postponed by two weeks.
The schools are scheduled to reopen
on July 1 instead of June 16, a school teacher said on condition of anonymity.
Despite the Suu Kyi detention, a U.N. special envoy who brokered talks
between her and the military government will proceed with a planned visit to the
country, an aide said Monday.
Razali Ismail, a veteran Malaysian
diplomat, believed it was "not prudent" for him to comment publicly for now on
the detention of Suu Kyi and the closure of her National League for Democracy's
offices last weekend, the aide said on condition of anonymity.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Thai leader says ``whole world'' concerned over Myanmar
crackdown
Mon
Jun 2, 1:51 PM ET
KHON KAEN, Thailand (AP) _ Thailand's prime minister said Monday that
``the whole world'' is concerned about the detention of Myanmar pro-democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and that the country's military government would have
to act to bring the situation ``back to normal.''
Myanmar's junta closed
offices of Suu Kyi's party and ordered universities shut after placing the Nobel
Peace Prize laureate and 19 members of her party into ``protective custody''
following a violent clash Friday between her supporters and thousands of
pro-junta protesters in the country's north.
``I think the whole world
is concerned, but I think the Myanmar government understands that,'' Prime
Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said. ``The Myanmar government will probably have to
do something to bring everything back to normal as soon as possible.''
Thaksin was speaking on the sidelines of a two-day meeting of trade
ministers of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in northern Thailand.
``We are trying to urge the Myanmar government to (build) total national
reconciliation, not only with Aung San Suu Kyi but with all ethnic minorities,''
he added.
The moves against Suu Kyi and her National League for
Democracy have alarmed some foreign governments and the United Nations, which
has been leading efforts to get the junta to negotiate with the opposition.
Myanmar has been ruled by the military for 40 years. The current junta
came to power after crushing a pro-democracy uprising in 1988.
It called
general elections in 1990, which NLD won by a landslide, but the junta blocked
the party from taking power.
--------------------------------------------------------------
BBC News - Monday, 2 June, 2003
Burma
moves to stifle protest
Burma's military government has
stopped thousands of students from attending university as calls mounted for the
release of Aung San Suu Kyi.
The opposition leader was taken into
"protective custody" on Friday after clashes between members of her National
League for Democracy (NLD) and government supporters left several people dead.
The BBC's Larry Jagan says university campuses, which have been closed
indefinitely, have in the past been at the centre of political activity and the
authorities are worried that students may organise protests.
Although
Burma's media has reported nothing of the week end's events, Burma rights
campaigner Debbie Stothard told the BBC that word was slowly getting out and
that "if the young people actually found out exactly what happened... it is very
possible that there will be nationwide unrest".
The NLD leader is being
held at a military guesthouse in the capital, Rangoon. NLD offices have been
shut and one Burmese pro-democracy group said it had heard reports that up to
200 other NLD members had been arrested.
Phone lines are said to have
been cut, and it is extremely difficult to independently verify what is now
happening in Burma.
Students at the gates of the University of Foreign
Language in Rangoon told the Associated Press that they had been given no
warning that their classes would be suspended.
"I am surprised and
disappointed with the closure. I am about to get my degree in another four
months," one student said.
The scheduled reopening of the country's
primary and high schools has also been postponed by two weeks, a school teacher
told AP.
Clashes
The military said four people
were killed and 50 injured in Friday's clashes in the town of Yaway Oo, about
560 kilometres (400 miles) from Rangoon.
But separate reports estimate
that up to 70 people died, including several monks who had joined Aung San Suu
Kyi's entourage, but were unconnected with the NLD.
Debbie Stothard,
co-ordinator of regional advocacy at Altsean (The Alternative Asean Network on
Burma), said the latest developments were the culmination of growing tensions
between the military and the NLD.
"I think this is all part of a
consistent plan and programme by the military regime to shut down the NLD and to
prevent Aung San Suu Kyi for further travel out of Rangoon. She's just
attracting too much support every time she travels out of Rangoon, and this is
extremely threatening to the regime," she said.
The United Nations,
Japan, Australia, Thailand, Britain, France and Sweden have all expressed their
alarm over the development.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer
said his government had summoned Burma's ambassador to explain her detention.
Razali Ismail, a UN special envoy who in October 2000 helped end a long
deadlock between the two sides, will proceed with a planned visit to Burma on
Friday despite the detention of Aung San Suu Kyi, an aide said Monday.
Despite hopes that her release from house arrest last year was a sign
that the junta was ready for political reform, Aung San Suu Kyi recently
attacked the military for the slow pace of change and their apparent reluctance
to start political talks.
Last week, 10 members of the pro-democracy
movement were sentenced to stiff jail terms for organising public protests and
being involved in clandestine activities.
And Aung San Suu Kyi's
month-long political tour of the north had become increasingly tense, with
repeated clashes between NLD supporters and members of the junta-sponsored Union
Solidarity Development Association.
The NLD won elections in 1990 by a
landslide, but the military regime which has run the country since 1962 refused
to hand over power.
Aung San Suu Kyi has spent much of the subsequent
decade under house arrest.
--------------------------------------------------------------
BBC News - Monday, 2 June,
2003
Hardliners winning Burma debate
By Larry Jagan
BBC Burma analyst
Over the past few months, Burma's dialogue process between the
Generals and Aung San Suu Kyi has begun to degenerate into a war of words.
Both sides have accused each other, though press conferences and
statements, of intransigence and not being sincere.
But now the regime
is taking the war a step further with a massive crackdown on the opposition
National League for Democracy.
The latest moves highlight a broader
split inside the ruling military over what do with Aung San Suu Kyi.
The
crackdown seems to be an orchestrated campaign by hardliners in the army, like
the country's top leader General Than Shwe, who are convinced that there is no
need to talk to the opposition leader.
Other military leaders, though,
have begun to realise that the country faces economic ruin and social unrest
unless they do.
"Many key Generals - like the military intelligence
chief Khin Nyunt - know the current political deadlock cannot continue much
longer without dire consequences for them," said a western diplomat in Rangoon.
Many of these military leaders and senior government officials saw the
start of the dialogue process more than two years ago as something which could
be advantageous to the army's long-term role in the country's political future.
They know that the only way out of the current political impasse is to
start political talks with Aung San Suu Kyi.
General Than Shwe, on the
other hand, has no intentions of starting concrete talks with the opposition
leader. For General Than Shwe, releasing Aung San Suu Kyi last year in May was
an end in itself, not a step towards direct negotiations.
Military
sources close to the general say he loathes Aung San Suu Kyi and refuses to have
her name mentioned in his vicinity.
"The very mention of her name throws
the senior General into a fit," said a senior Asian diplomat.
"During
the Asean (Association of South East Asian Nations) summit in Phnom Penh last
November, Asian leaders like the Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi were advised
not to mention her name during their bilateral meetings," the diplomat said.
Than Shwe has started to exercise total political and military power in
the past year or so. This has created substantial unease among the country's
other top generals. They have begun to see that the current lack of political
progress is endangering their long-term survival.
In the meantime,
"pragmatists" in the military who accept that change is essential - and who are
grouped around intelligence chief General Khin Nyunt and the foreign ministry -
are telling their Asian counterparts and diplomats in Rangoon that Burma is
facing a major crisis in the coming months if there is no political progress in
the dialogue process soon.
Aung San Suu Kyi's detention and the
crackdown on the opposition seems to be an orchestrated campaign by the
hardliners in the army.
"The army has been on alert for more than a week
leading up to the violent clash in northern Burma," said a military source in
Rangoon.
The hardliners seem to have been looking for an excuse to delay
talking to Aung San Suu Kyi and provide concrete reasons for ignoring the
opposition.
This contrasts with recent efforts by military intelligence
to restart dialogue with the opposition leader - at least at a lower level
within the army than the top three generals.
"The two sides were going
to meet after her return from Kachin state," said the NLD spokesman ULwin.
Now Burma's political process is at a crossroads. The junta's sincerity
is about to be tested.
The pragmatists want to talk to the opposition
leader but it seems the army and the hardliners are the ones in control.
If the hardliners have consolidated their position this would almost
certainly mean the end of the dialogue process.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Mon Jun 2,
2003.
O'BRIEN CALLS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF BURMESE OPPOSITION
LEADER AUNG SAN SUU KYI (01/06/03)
Foreign Office
Minister Mike O'Brien today called for the immediate release of Burmese
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other members of her party who are being
detained under ?protective custody? by the Burmese regime.
The Burmese
military authorities apparently took this step following the deaths of four
people and injuries to 50 others in a clash between Aung San Suu Kyi's National
League for Democracy (NLD) and other groups. Her renewed detention comes
just over a year after she was released from house arrest, where she had spent
much of the previous decade.
Mr O'Brien said:
?I am disturbed by
the reports of violence between supporters of the National League for Democracy
(NLD) and opposing groups and extend my deepest sympathies to those injured and
the families of those killed.
?Over the past few weeks I have been
alarmed by persistent, credible reports that the Union Solidarity Development
Association (USDA), and other groups supported by the military regime, have been
inciting local people into protests against the NLD. It is not the first
time such pseudo-protestors have threatened violence against Daw Suu Kyi's
party.
?Embassy officials have been asked to call on senior NLD leaders
in Rangoon to seek their version of events.
?I call on the Burmese
authorities to release immediately Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other party members,
and to take rapid action against the USDA and others responsible for the
provocation that led to this incident.
?The United Nations Secretary
General's Special Representative, Razali, will be arriving in Burma very soon
for talks with the military authorities and the NLD. We attach great
importance to his efforts, and urge all sides to take this opportunity to move
rapidly to a genuine process of dialogue and political reform that could
overcome this present tension.?
--------------------------------------------------------------
Sydney Morning Herald
Regime broadens
crackdown as Suu Kyi blamed for unrest
By Mark
Baker, Herald Correspondent in Singapore
June 3
2003
Burma's military regime has signalled an end to promised
political reform by widening a crackdown on the country's democracy
movement.
The regime yesterday ordered the closure of all universities
and colleges and shut down the remaining offices of the opposition National
League for Democracy in defiance of an international outcry over the weekend
arrest of the opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.
Ms Suu Kyi remained in
detention at an undisclosed location in Rangoon after being brought back to the
capital on Sunday.
She was arrested late on Friday in the north of the
country after a two-hour riot, during which authorities said four people were
killed and 50 injured.
NLD officials said thousands of
government-recruited agitators, armed with knives and sticks, had attacked Ms
Suu Kyi's convoy, but the regime said she had been taken into "protective
custody" after NLD members turned on a crowd of local protesters upset by her
anti-government speeches.
Burmese exile groups in neighbouring Thailand
yesterday said as many as 70 people had been killed when soldiers opened fire
during the clash and that Ms Suu Kyi had suffered a head injury. The claims
could not be independently verified.
Diplomats and analysts said a
commentary published in the official New Light of Myanmar newspaper accusing Ms
Suu Kyi of fomenting anti-government unrest during her month-long tour of
northern states indicated that the regime was moving to shut down the
opposition.
The crackdown, which follows a series of recent attacks by Ms
Suu Kyi on the Government's failure to start promised talks on political reform,
has provoked international alarm.
Australia's Foreign Minister, Alexander
Downer, joined calls by a number of Western governments for Ms Suu Kyi's
immediate release. "There can be no justification for the continued detention of
Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters and I urge that they be released
immediately," he said.
In New York, the United Nations Secretary-General,
Kofi Annan, called on the regime to begin a substantive dialogue with the
opposition as soon as possible.
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