The BurmaNet News, July 9, 1998 (pa

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------------------------ BurmaNet ------------------------
 "Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
----------------------------------------------------------

The BurmaNet News: July 9, 1998
Issue #1044

Noted in Passing: " The ASEAN Secretariat should set up a ASEAN task force
to monitor closely the deterioration of the political situation in Burma."
- Lim Kit Siang, Parliamentary Opposition Leader in Malaysia, DAP
Secretary-General and MP for Tanjong [SEE MALAYSIAN OPPOSITION: STATEMENT
ON BURMA] 

[Editor's Note: This issue of The BurmaNet News is being distributed in two
parts because of length.]

HEADLINES:
==========
(Part 1)
THE NATION: RANGOON QUIET AS FEARS RISE
REUTERS: MYANMAR JUNTA ALLOWS SUU KYI 
SPDC: INFORMATION SHEET NO. A-0492(I/L)
AP: MYANMAR DISSIDENT RETURNS HOME
THE NATION: ASEAN SET TO DISCUSS POLICY MOVE
REUTERS: MYANMAR SAYS COMMENTS REGRETTABLE
(Part 2)
MALAYSIAN OPPOSITION: STATEMENT ON BURMA
SCMP (EDITORIAL): OPENING ASEAN'S EYES
BKK POST (LETTER): MORAL COWARDS SET A BAD EXAMPLE
MYANMAR ALIN: MYANMAR WOMEN'S DAY
DVB: 5 SPDC SOLDIERS KILLED, 15 WOUNDED IN FRIENDLY FIRE
BKK POST: JAPAN AID PAID
BAC: PORTLAND, OR PASSES SELECTIVE PURCHASING LAW
SCMP: ANTI-JUNTA LOBBYISTS NEED A RICHARD GERE
ANNOUNCEMENT: BOOK ON FATE OF BURMA'S MP'S AVAILABLE
ANNOUNCEMENT: RORY MACLEAN'S UNDER THE DRAGON 
****************************************************************

The Nation: Rangoon Quiet As Fears of More Violence Rise 
8 July, 1998 

There was no detectable increase in security or unrest in the Burmese
capital of Rangoon yesterday, on the 36th anniversary of a bloody crackdown
on pro-democracy student protesters, foreign diplomats said.

The date of July 7, long symbolic of Burmese independence, is the first in
a series of sensitive anniversaries spread over the next few weeks
commemorating tumultuous political events in the country's history.

"It's business as usual," one foreign diplomat said. "It's the usual chaos
on the streets."

A Bangkok-based Burmese opposition students group claimed tanks and
security forces had been deployed at eight strategic locations around
Rangoon yesterday, but diplomats who had passed some of the sites said they
saw nothing.

"I drove there this morning," another diplomat said, referring to two of
the locations identified by the students.

"There certainly weren't any tanks."

The All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF) said its sources in Rangoon
had told them of the deployments.

ABSDF foreign affairs secretary Aung Naing Oo said his group believed
security was being increased to deter would-be protesters from marking the
various anniversaries.

Hundreds of students were killed by security forces during a July 7, 1962,
demonstration in Rangoon. 

****************************************************************

Reuters: Myanmar Junta Allows Suu Kyi to Meet Official
8 July, 1998 by Rajan Moses 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Myanmar's military government said it had allowed
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to meet a party member at a northern
village on Wednesday after preventing her from doing so on Tuesday.

Security officials had on Tuesday stopped the National League for Democracy
(NLD) party leader Suu Kyi and three others traveling with her by car at
Shwe Mya Yar village, about 80 km (50 miles) north of Yangon.

The junta prevented her from continuing to northern Min Hla township, about
150 km (90 miles) away from the capital, to meet the party member, saying
it was for her own security and to prevent her from creating political unrest.

Suu Kyi and her party, including NLD chairman Aung Shwe, remained overnight
at the village hoping to meet the party member, Hla Hla Moe of Min Hla
township, party sources said.

``Arrangements were made by local authorities for Daw Hla Hla Moe to come
to Shwe Mya Yar village on July 8 morning to meet with the party. Later on,
after the meeting, both parties left the venue,'' a government statement
obtained by Reuters said.

NLD and diplomatic sources in Yangon said Suu Kyi had returned to Yangon
around mid-morning. Comment was not immediately available from the NLD.

The statement from the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC)
said rumors had been circulated by the opposition that unrest and violence
could be expected in Myanmar on Matryr's Day on July 19 and on August 8,
the 10th anniversary of 1988 student street protests, which the military
crushed.

Suu Kyi, the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize winner, has been demanding since May
that the junta convene parliament comprising elected representatives of the
aborted May 1990 polls.

The 1990 polls were swept by the NLD but the ruling military ignored the
result.

The NLD and Suu Kyi, who was released from six years of house arrest in
mid-1995, sought the convening of parliament by August 21.

The junta has rejected Suu Kyi's demand and threatened her with legal
action for her statements, which it said hampered the drafting of a new
national constitution by a government-appointed National Convention.

The United States on Tuesday condemned the travel restriction imposed on
Suu Kyi by the junta and said it had violated her basic rights of freedom
of movement.

Thailand said on Wednesday that it was concerned by the escalating
political tensions in Myanmar and urged all sides involved in the conflict
to exercise restraint.

The junta earlier this week restricted movements of NLD representatives in
townships to prevent them from fomenting unrest ahead of the planned
opening of some closed institutions of higher learning some time next month.

The institutions were closed in December 1996 after student protests
against the military government.

The government statement said it regretted that the NLD had put on ``war
paint'' and was ``deliberately trying to create a head-on collision and
confrontation with the government.''

It said the NLD was trying to step up its political agitation to disrupt
the planned reopening of the shut colleges.

Suu Kyi and her party were colluding with some western governments to
undermine investment, tourism and other humanitarian assistance to the
people of Myanmar, it added.

It warned the NLD to stop pushing the government into reacting violently to
the party's confrontational activities.

A Yangon-based diplomat said the opposition had turned up the heat on the
government to test how far it would go in curbing the NLD's activities. But
the situation in Yangon remained calm with no signs of stepped up security
as rumored, he added.

``It is difficult to say now if there may be trouble but definitely the
opposition is testing how far the government will go,'' he said. 

****************************************************************

SPDC: Information Sheet No. A-0492 (I/L) 
7 July, 1998 from <OKKAR66129@xxxxxxx> 

Preventive Measures Taken To Maintain Peace and Stability
On 7th  July at 1015 hrs. NLD Chairman U Aung Shwe, an elected
representative U Maung Aye, Secretary General Mrs. Aris and a driver in a
motor vehicle were stopped by the local security officials at Shwe Mya Yar
village located approximately 50 miles north of Yangon.

The local security officials noticing the absence of Mrs.Aris' security
team on this trip made an enquiry and requested U Aung Shwe and Mrs. Aris
not to proceed with their planned trip to Min Hla Township, approximately
(92) miles north of Yangon.

U Aung Shwe, Mrs. Aris  and party were later requested to return back to
Yangon after permission to proceed was denied by the authorities concerned
in Yangon on ground of security and prevention as well  in the making of
unnecessary political agitation and activities intending to create a
head-on collision and confrontation with the relevant authorities in an
attempt to bring about social unrest and political disturbances.

It is also learnt that 7th of July is the day when in 1962 some
unscrupulous student unrest took place in Yangon and henceforth has being
annually agitated and commemorated by the terrorist organizations and
anti-government groups abroad for politicization. It is regretful that the
NLD leadership has deliberately chosen the occasion to create unnecessary
and unwanted confusion, confrontation and collision and thereby to threaten
the disruption of the prevailing peace, tranquillity and stability at any
cost. While at the same time fabrication and disinformation campaign have
been carried out through the media and some embassies in Yangon to mislead
the world into thinking that an internal revolution and ethnic uprising are
imminently brewing in Myanmar. 

****************************************************************

Associated Press: Myanmar Dissident Returns Home 
8 July, 1998 

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi returned home
unharmed today after a nearly 24-hour standoff with police on a road
outside the capital.

Testing the military junta's edict that prevents her from leaving Yangon
unescorted, Suu Kyi, the winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, had driven
50 miles north of the capital to meet a member of her National League for
Democracy party.

Police at the scene told Suu Kyi and the three others in her car to return
to Yangon, but she rejected the order. Local officials then called in 30
soldiers, who lifted the care - with the passengers inside - and turn it
around to face toward the capital, a high-ranking party official said.

Neither Suu Kyi, 53, nor the others in the car were harmed, the party
sources said.

Suu Kyi had planned to tell Hla Hla Moe, a party member elected in 1990 to
a parliament the military never allowed to convene, to stop meeting demands
by local authorities to check in twice a day, the party sources said. Hla
Hla Moe is based in the northern township of Min Hla.

Suu Kyi's activities are tightly restricted. The trip outside her home
without a customary security forces escort, followed by her refusal to
return when stopped, challenged the military government which is already
under pressure internationally to permit civilian rule.

Last month, her party for the first time set a deadline, Aug. 21, for the
government to convene the 1990 parliament. The NLD overwhelmingly won those
elections but the ruling generals, whose supporters lost the vote, never
allowed parliament to meet.

Since the NLD demand, the government has required the members-elect living
outside the capital to report twice a day to local authorities. Those who
refuse have reportedly been detained.

It was the second time since she was released in 1995 from six years of
formal house arrest that Suu Kyi has tried to leave Yangon. In 1996, she
tried taking a train north to Mandalay, but the coach she would have ridden
was removed from service.

Suu Kyi has again been restricted to her home since 1996 but is
occasionally allowed to meet small groups of supporters and receive some
visitors. She is barred from making speeches.

The military has ruled Myanmar, also known as Burma, since 1962.

****************************************************************

The Nation: Asean Set to Discuss Policy Move 
8 July, 1998 

MANILA -- Foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(Asean) are set to discuss a Thai proposal to end the policy of
non-interference in each other's internal affairs, a Philippine official
said yesterday.

Philippine Foreign under-secretary Laura Bag said the foreign ministers,
who will meet Manila later this month, would discuss Thai Foreign Minister
Surin Pitsuwan's proposal that they review their policy of non-interference.

Bag said discussions on internal affairs could be taken up "if not in the
formal plenary sessions, then in the informal meetings like working dinners".

However, he added that he did not expect an immediate consensus on the issue.

"The foreign ministers are talking among themselves. It's very possibly
that this will be one of the topics among the Asean foreign ministers," he
said.

Surin last month suggested that Asean members, who traditionally avoid
delving into each other's affairs, should change this policy, adding that
this would result in greater flexibility, which would help Asean recover
some of the clout it had lost owing to the Asian financial crisis.

Bag also confirmed local newspaper reports that the Philippines was already
taking a position of "flexible engagement" with Asean member Burma aimed at
helping avoid a political upheaval in that country.

Asked if the foreign ministers would be issuing a statement on Burma during
the meeting in Manila, Bag said: "It all depends if all the foreign
ministers are watching the developments in Burma right now."
Opposition groups in Burma said on Monday that serious social unrest was
set to erupt in that country amid rising tensions with government forces.

Asean groups Brunei, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Burma, the Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

* Associated Press reports: Asean will wait until later this year to decide
whether to accept Cambodia as a member, even though elections aimed at
demonstrating the country's political normalcy are being held during the
Asean meeting this month, Bag said.

* He said that a decision to admit Cambodia could be made before Asean
leaders met in Vietnam in December if the outcome of the July 26 elections
is positive.

Much of the Asean decision will depend on a statement to be released by a
group of international observers, including representatives of Asean
countries, who will be monitoring the elections, Bag said.

"Much will depend on the outcome" of the elections, Bag said.

****************************************************************

Reuters: Myanmar Says Comments on Tensions Regrettable 
8 July, 1998 

BANGKOK, July 8 (Reuters) - Myanmar criticised foreign governments on
Wednesday for comments over rising tension between the ruling junta and its
pro-democracy opposition. ``Recent statements made by certain responsible
ministers regarding their concern on the presupposed situation in Union of
Myanmar are found to be presumptuous,'' said a statement released by
Myanmar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Thailand's foreign ministry said earlier on Wednesday it was concerned by
developments in Myanmar and called for restraint between the military junta
and the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD).

The United States condemned the government's refusal to allow opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi to visit her party members.

``The authorities in Myanmar have been exercising utmost restraint in
dealing with the aggressive and confrontational attitude of certain
elements,'' the Myanmar statement said.

Myanmar said Thailand's comments could potentially affect relations between
the two countries and were against the spirit of the regional grouping, the
Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which both countries
are members.

``It is regrettable that presumptuous observation and remarks made on
isolated and wrong information could lead to misunderstanding and a
misconception not only in bilateral relations but also intra-ASEAN,'' the
Myanmar statement said.

Thailand earlier said it wished to see an easing of tension in Myanmar as
it feared the problem could escalate.

The Thai foreign ministry spokesman said any instability or unrest in
Myanmar could lead to problems along the common border between the two
countries.

As a result of any unrest, there could be a spill-over of refugees, border
trade might be hampered and drug suppression activities at the border areas
might be affected, he said.

``We are concerned about the developments there. We urge restraint by all
sides to avoid violent confrontation between the opposing forces,'' Thai
foreign ministry spokesman Kobsak Chutikul told Reuters.

``We, as fellow ASEAN member countries, feel that any new instability in
the region could affect efforts to achieve regional economic
rehabilitation,'' he said.

Political tension between the ruling military State Peace and Development
Council (SPDC) and opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party led
by Aung San Suu Kyi has been building up since late May.

Suu Kyi demanded in May that the junta convene a parliament of elected
representatives from a May 1990 election, which the NLD won but was ignored
by the ruling military. The SPDC rejected the idea.

Since then the SPDC has placed NLD elected representatives under surveillance.

On Tuesday, the military prevented Suu Kyi and senior party officials from
travelling to a northern township to meet some NLD elected party
representatives.

****************************************************************

[end of part 1]