Australian opposition promises Myan

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                           Australian opposition promises Myanmar sanctions
                           07:11 a.m. Sep 15, 1998 Eastern

                             CANBERRA, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Australia's Labor
opposition
                           promised on Tuesday to impose political and
economic sanctions
                           on Myanmar if it won the October 3 general
election.

                           Labor foreign affairs spokesman Laurie Brereton
called Myanmar's military government an
                           ``odious regime'' and said Labor would discourage
Australian trade with Myanmar and
                           tourist visits there.

                           A Labor government would also suspend issuing
visas to Myanmar officials and others
                           linked to the military government.

                           ``Sanctions by Australia would send an important
political message...and would be a
                           significant contribution to international efforts
to bring about respect for human rights and
                           democratic freedoms in Burma (Myanmar),''
Brereton said in a statement accompanying
                           Labor's foreign policy launch.

                           Australia's conservative Liberal-National
government also issued a foreign policy
                           statement on Tuesday, saying it had already
applied pressure on Myanmar to improve
                           human rights.

                           Foreign Minister Alexander Downer last week said
Australia was disturbed by increasing
                           arrests of members of Myanmar's main opposition
party, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner
                           Aung San Suu Kyi.

                           Labor also pledged on Tuesday to appoint an envoy
to work towards a lasting settlement in
                           strife-torn East Timor.

                           Brereton said a Labor government would spend A$22
million (US$13 million) over three
                           years in financial aid to the disputed Indonesian
territory and seek the immediate release of
                           resistance leader Xanana Gusmao.

                           Indonesia is Australia's nearest northern
neighbour and Australia is the only foreign
                           government to recognise its rule there after
Jakarta annexed the former Portuguese colony
                           in 1976.

                           ``The controversy in the events in East Timor
have come at a very considerable moral
                           price for Australia,'' Brereton said.

                           Brereton described an Indonesian offer of special
status for East Timor as encouraging, but
                           believed no permanent solution was likely without
East Timorese self-determination.