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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HEADLINE -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BBC - Burmese police stop Suu Kyi
Reuters - Myanmar's
Suu Kyi Stopped by Police Outside Yangon
AP - Cops Stop Myanmar Leader From
Travel
ABC news - Police in Myanmar stop
pro-democracy leader from travel
AFP - Military halts Aung San Suu Kyi on
road outside Yangon
Financial Times - Britain deplores
restrictions on Myanmar's Suu Kyi
ABC - Burmese migrants rush to apply for
Thai work permits
Bkk Post - More troops to be moved to
protect Burmese border
The Age - Downer defends Burma
training
IPS - RIGHTS-BURMA: AMBASSADOR SEES NO CHANGE IN JUNTA'S
POSTURE
Dowjones
- Asean To Increase Size Of Balance Of Payment Aid
Fund
BBC -
Profile: Aung San Suu Kyi
SCMP -
BURMA- Police stop pro-democracy leader travelling
SCMP -Australian effort to sway regime a 'waste
of time'
NYT -
Myanmar's Suu Kyi in New Roadside
Standoff
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BURMA RELATED NEWS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BBC - Friday, 25 August, 2000, 07:09
GMT 08:09 UK
Burmese police stop Suu Kyi Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been stopped by police
while trying to leave the capital Rangoon.
It is said to be the first time she had attempted to travel outside the city for two years. The 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and other members of her party left
Rangoon on Thursday morning to meet supporters, according to reports.
But they were halted by police at Dala on the outskirts of the city and
have still not returned home.
Reporters who tried to reach Dala on Friday morning were told by a
plainclothes security official not to go.
Security
The Burmese Government said a Toyota saloon carrying Ms Suu Kyi and other
members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) had been stopped by police
because it did not have "proper security arrangements".
"Security officials requested them not to proceed but stay in Dala town or
return to Yangon [Rangoon]," the government said in a statement.
The government referred to "threats of violence by armed insurgent
separatist forces" and said Ms Suu Kyi had been stopped for her own protection.
Protest
Reports said Ms Suu Kyi and her party had been planning to travel to
Kungyangon, 50km (31 miles) south of Rangoon to reorganise the NLD's youth wing.
The NLD won elections in May 1990 but Burma's military rulers refused to
hand over power.
Some party members have been jailed and others placed under house arrest.
Ms Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest for six years until 1995 and the
military has since restricted her movements.
In 1998 she was stopped at least twice while trying to leave Rangoon to
meet supporters.
On the first occasion she remained in her car for five days in protest
before she was forcibly returned to Rangoon.
A few weeks later she stayed in her car for 13 days on a road west of the
city after refusing government demands to turn back. She eventually returned
home voluntarily on her doctors' advice.
Friday August 25 3:05 AM ET
Myanmar's Suu Kyi Stopped by Police Outside Yangon By Aung Hla Tun YANGON, Myanmar (Reuters) -
Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been stopped by police after
trying to leave Yangon for the first time since a 13-day roadside standoff two
years ago, the military government said Friday.
Opposition sources said Nobel laureate Suu Kyi left her Yangon residence
Thursday morning to travel to Dala township south of the city. She was still in
her car after being stopped by police and refusing to return to Yangon as
requested.
In a statement, the Myanmar government said a Toyota saloon carrying Suu
Kyi and other members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) had been
stopped by police in Sarpachaun outside Yangon because it did not have ``proper
security arrangements.''
``Security officials requested them not to proceed but stay in Dala town or
return to Yangon,'' the government said.
``Due to threats of violence by armed insurgent separatist forces, travel
by prominent persons to some part of the country is at present
inadvisable.''
In 1998 Suu Kyi was twice blocked by police when trying to leave
Yangon.
In July 1998, a five-day standoff in her car was forcibly ended by the
military, and a month later she stayed in her car for 13 days on a road west of
Yangon after being stopped by police and refusing government demands to return
to the capital.
Suu Kyi said the military was trying to prevent her meeting supporters
outside Yangon and was violating her freedom of movement. With her health
deteriorating, she eventually returned home, and did not try again to leave the
city until this week.
The government said Friday Suu Kyi was stopped for her own
protection.
``The government will take all necessary action in protecting her from
these threats, while also safeguarding her human rights, as much as possible
including the right to freedom of movement,'' it said.
The NLD won elections in May 1990 but has never been allowed to govern. Its
members have been jailed, placed under house arrest or restricted by the ruling
generals, who say the country is not ready for Western-style democracy.
Suu Kyi was under house arrest for six years until 1995.
In a rare interview this week, Suu Kyi renewed her call for international
pressure to help achieve democracy in Myanmar and said the recent opening of
universities, closed in 1996 after anti-government protests, was a sham.
The government said it regretted her comments.
Friday August 25 2:36 AM ET
Cops Stop Myanmar Leader From Travel YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -
Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, attempting to travel outside the capital
for the first time in two years, was stopped by police on the city's outskirts
and had not returned home by Friday morning, sources close to her said.
The 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, along with members of her National
League for Democracy political party, crossed the Yangon River by ferry and were
stopped by police at suburban Dala, said the sources, who spoke on condition of
anonymity.
Reporters who tried to take the ferry across the river to Dala on Friday
morning were told by a plainclothes security official not to go. Normal
commuters were allowed to cross.
Suu Kyi and her party reportedly were planning to travel to Kungyangon, 30
miles south of Yangon, to work on reorganizing the National League for
Democracy's youth wing.
Suu Kyi opposes the military council which has ruled Myanmar, also known as
Burma, since crushing a pro-democracy uprising she led in 1988. A year later she
was placed under a house arrest, which lasted until 1995. Since then the
military has restricted Suu Kyi's movements and has refused to enter a dialogue
with her.
Suu Kyi's group was scheduled to return to Yangon on Thursday afternoon but
had not arrived back by Friday morning, a family member of the National League
for Democracy's vice chairman, Tin Oo, said in a telephone interview. Tin Oo and
members of the youth wing were with Suu Kyi when she was stopped.
The family sources said the party was stranded in Tin Oo's car after police
aborted their travel plans. Suu Kyi's car and driver remained parked on the
Yangon side of the river at the ferry pier Friday morning.
The trip was Suu Kyi's first outside Yangon since several failed attempts
in 1998. She was stopped by police four times in July and August that year as
she tried to meet party members in outlying areas.
On two occasions in 1998, the people she wanted to meet were brought to her
at the place where her car was stopped.
When her car was stopped that August on a trip to the Irrawaddy Delta town
of Pathein, she remained inside her vehicle for nearly six days in protest.
Police finally brought her back to Yangon in what she described as ``being
kidnapped.''
On the fourth occasion, Suu Kyi broke a 13-day standoff and returned home
voluntarily on her doctor's advice.
ABC News - WIRE:08/25/2000 05:32:00
ET
Police in Myanmar stop pro-democracy leader from travel YANGON, Myanmar (AP) _
Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, attempting to travel outside the capital
for the first time in two years, has been stopped by police on the city"s
outskirts, her political party announced Friday. The 1991 Nobel Peace Prize
laureate, along with members of her National League for Democracy, had crossed
the Yangon River by ferry and "were being illegally stopped by the authorities
on a road in Dala," a suburb of Yangon, the party said in a statement. "It is
learnt that the party leaders and the members were short of food and water," the
National League for Democracy said, appealing to party members and Dala
residents to help provide sustenance to them. The government said Friday that
security officials "requested them not to proceed but to stay in Dala or return
to Yangon for security reasons." Suu Kyi was stopped by authorities on Thursday.
Reporters who tried to take the ferry across the river to Dala on Friday morning
were told by a plainclothes security official not to go. Normal commuters were
allowed to cross. A passer-by said the two vehicles carrying Suu Kyi"s entourage
had been moved to a small lane off the main road in Dala, and were blocked from
traveling farther by two trucks. About half a dozen uniformed police and several
plainclothes agents were at the scene, and an ambulance was stationed nearby, he
said. Suu Kyi, party Vice Chairman Tin Oo, another senior party official and 12
youth wing members had been planning to travel to Kungyangon, 30 miles south of
Yangon, for party organizational work, party sources said, speaking on condition
of anonymity. Suu Kyi opposes the military council that has ruled Myanmar, also
known as Burma, with an iron fist since crushing a pro-democracy uprising she
helped lead in 1988. A year later she was placed under house arrest which lasted
until 1995. Since then the military has restricted her movements and refused to
enter a dialogue with her. A senior National League for Democracy member said in
Yangon on Friday that Suu Kyi was carrying out organizational work as is the
right of the group as a legal political party. Lwin, a member of the party"s
10-member Central Executive Committee, said the party would protest. More than
30 party members were seen waiting for news at the group"s headquarters in
Yangon. Thursday"s trip was Suu Kyi"s first outside Yangon since several failed
attempts in 1998. She was stopped by police four times that year as she tried to
meet with party members in outlying areas. In August 1998, when her car was
stopped on a trip to the Irrawaddy Delta town of Pathein, she remained inside
her vehicle for nearly six days in protest. Police finally brought her back to
Yangon in what she described as "being kidnapped." On the fourth occasion when
she was stopped that year, also in August, Suu Kyi broke a 13-day standoff and
returned home voluntarily on her doctor"s advice.
Friday, August 25 1:33 PM SGT
Military halts Aung San Suu Kyi on road outside Yangon YANGON, Aug 25 (AFP) - Myanmar
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is in a stand-off on a road outside Yangon
with military authorities who blocked her after she left the capital in defiance
of a travel ban, sources said Friday.
Members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) said the Nobel laureate
had been facing off the authorities for nearly 24 hours since her car was
stopped at the town of Dallah Thursday afternoon.
"She was stopped while she was on her way to organise the youth wing in
Kawhmu," a party source told AFP. The NLD has not been in contact with her since
then and has no more information on the situation, he said.
A senior spokesman for the military regime confirmed that Aung San Suu Kyi
and a group of people accompanying her had been halted at Dallah and told to
stay there or return the 32 kilometres (20 miles) to Yangon.
Financial Times
Britain deplores restrictions on
Myanmar's Suu Kyi
25 Aug 2000 13:14GMT LONDON, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Britain urged Myanmar on Friday to lift travel restrictions on opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and open a dialogue with the Nobel laureate. Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said he deplored steps by police to stop Suu
Kyi from leaving Yangon on Thursday -- the first time she had tried to travel
outside the capital since a 13-day roadside standoff two years ago.
We urge the authorities to lift these unnecessary and unlawful restrictions
immediately, and call on the regime to open an immediate dialogue with... Aung
San Suu Kyi and the NLD (National League for Democracy), Cook said in a
statement.
Opposition sources said Suu Kyi left her Yangon residence on Thursday
morning to travel to Dala township south of the city. She was still in her car
after being stopped by police and refusing to return to Yangon as requested.
In a statement, the Myanmar government said a car carrying Suu Kyi and
other NLD members had been stopped by police in Sarpachaun outside Yangon
because it did not have proper security arrangements.
It said Suu Kyi, who was kept under house arrest for six years until 1995,
was stopped for her own protection.
To restrict leaders of a democratic political party from moving around the
country is a denial of fundamental human and political rights, Cook said.
The NLD won elections in May 1990 but has never been allowed to govern. Its
members have been jailed, placed under house arrest or restricted by the ruling
generals, who say the country is not ready for Western-style democracy.
In a rare interview this week, Suu Kyi renewed her call for international
pressure to help achieve democracy in Myanmar and said the recent opening of
universities, closed in 1996 after anti-government protests, was a sham.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation -
Aug 25, 2000.
Burmese migrants rush to apply for Thai work permits More than 10-thousand unskilled Burmese workers have rushed to Mae Sot on
Thailand's border after the country decided to extend work permits for unskilled
workers from Cambodia, Laos and Burma.
Thousands queued to obtain a border pass from the authorities at
Thai-Burmese checkpoints after the decision by the Thai labour ministry to
extend permits to nearly 107-thousand unskilled foreign workers.
There are about 80-thousand illegal workers in Mae Sot, but only 21-hundred
unskilled workers are officially allowed to have jobs in the farming and
construction sectors.
Most of the illegal workers are employed in factories, notably in the
textile and garment industries.
Bangkok Post - Aug 25,
2000.
More troops to be moved to protect
Burmese border
Forces along eastern frontier to pull back Wassana Nanuam
Army troops will be pulled out of the border with Laos and Cambodia in
October as security efforts focus on the Thai-Burmese frontier.
Army chief-of-staff Gen Montrisak Boonkhong said the troops would be
withdrawn from all areas along the eastern border except Aranyaprathet, Sa
Kaew,and Chong Mek in Ubon Ratchathani on Oct 1.
The army would still command military strategy in the area, but day to day
security would be taken over by border patrol police and paramilitary
rangers.
Gen Montrisak said funds and firepower would be relocated from the East to
the western border to join the operation against drug trafficking and beef up
border security.
The build up would focus on Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Mae Hong Son and Tak
provinces, and include the provision of more night-vision goggles for troops
stationed there. Production of methamphetamines in Burma was still on the rise,
although some large drug laboratories had been damaged in fighting between
minority forces along the border.
Spokesman Gen Sanan Kachornklam said the Defence Council is still worried
about the large number of Thais leaving the country to gamble at casinos just
across the border. It also anticipates border problems due to Rangoon's
relocation of more than 80,000 Wa people, traditional opium growers, to areas
near the Thai border.
The Age
Downer defends Burma training By PAUL DALEY
FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT- CANBERRA Friday 25 August 2000 The Federal Government defended its controversial human rights training
program for Burma after the publication of a diplomatic cable that cast new
doubts on the value of engaging the military regime.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer yesterday rejected suggestions that
Australia was the only country to deal with Burma's hardline military
government.
"Burma is an active member of ASEAN and other regional institutions. A
number of countries, such as Japan and some major European nations, are all
engaged with Burma through the provision of scholarships and the provision of
training including for Burmese Government officials," he said.
"There can be no argument about the extent of human rights abuses in Burma.
The question is what to do to improve the situation."
Mr Downer's comments came in response to publication in The Age yesterday
of a cable from Australian ambassador to Burma, Trevor Wilson, which questioned
the value of direct engagement with the military regime.
Mr Wilson's cable was sent to Mr Downer and Prime Minister John Howard in
late July, four days after Australia's first human rights training seminar for
75 Burmese bureaucrats, hand-picked by the country's military government.
But Mr Downer said the human rights training program, which has been
criticised by Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, helped educate Burmese
officials in basic human rights. He said Australia had also helped to get Burma
to agree to an independent human rights commission.
But Labor said Australia was the only country to engage Burma on such a
human-rights program.
Foreign affairs spokesman Laurie Brereton said the funds used for the
seminars, the third of which is due to take place in Rangoon next month, "could
be more usefully spent on programs to assist Burmese refugees and the many
victims of human rights abuse".
Inter Press Service
RIGHTS-BURMA: AMBASSADOR SEES NO CHANGE IN JUNTA'S POSTURE CANBERRA, (Aug. 24) IPS - A
leaked cable from the new Australian ambassador to Burma paints a bleak
assessment of the prospects for improvement of human rights in the country,
saying "there are clearly no grounds for optimism" the military will ease its
crackdown on the pro-democracy movement.
"The (junta) shows no signs of being interested in relinquishing power," said the July 21 cable, which was sent by Ambassador Trevor Wilson to both Australian Prime Minister John Howard and Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer. The cable was published by the Melbourne newspaper, The Age,
yesterday.
"There are clearly no grounds for optimism in the SPDC's unchanging
approach to opponents of the regime. Nor do observers in Rangoon detect any
signs that the regime is willing to bend in the direction of political dialogue
or any hints that meaningful movement towards transition to a freely elected
government is contemplated," said the cable.
"Rather, all the indicators point to the regime being determined to remain
in power at all cost, allowing only marginal reforms in the economy and society.
Neither the appointment of a new special representative by the U.N.
Secretary-General, nor other attempts at more direct engagement with the regime
have yet resulted in many substantive improvements," the cable warned.
The cable, written just four days after the first in a series of Australian
government-sponsored human rights workshops for 75 officials in the military
regime, increases pressure on the Australian government to withdraw its funding
of the controversial $100,000 training program.
The director of the Sydney-based Burma Office, Dr. Myint Cho, says the
cable confirms what the democracy movement has been saying all along. "The human
rights situation is not improving," he said.
"We don't believe the human rights training program will be successful in
assisting with change. The Australian government should work with the
international community to create constant pressure to force the regime to enter
into dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi," Cho said.
"Unless they enter into political dialogue we can't see that the country
can change," he said.
The shadow minister for foreign affairs, Laurie Brereton, has renewed his
call for the Howard government to cancel its human rights training program with
Burma's military regime.
"The political assessment by Australia's ambassador to Burma demolishes the
credibility of the Howard government's engagement with the Burmese military," he
said.
"This program comes in the absence of any real human rights commitments
from Rangoon or benchmarks against which performance will be measured. We are
the only country in the world cozying up to these people, and they will take
great comfort from that," Brereton said.
A spokeswoman for Alexander Downer said the ambassador was supportive of
human rights training program and that the Australian government had no
illusions that change would only be slow and incremental.
Another multi-day workshop for 25 officers of the Burmese regime is
scheduled for next month.
While the United States and the European Union remain committed to
isolating Burma's military regime with sanctions, Australia has broken ranks and
sought to engage the regime in the hope it can be encouraged to ease its tight
grip on the Burmese democracy movement.
The deputy secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, John
Dauth, justified the government's engagement policy in a recent speech to a
parliamentary committee.
"We are seeking to capitalize on a judgment that it is better to engage
with the regime in Burma than to isolate them and, by engaging them in this way,
to seek to have some effect at the margin, to chip away, so that over time human
rights values are better respected."
While Dauth argues that "the policy of isolating Burma has had no effect
whatsoever" he was candid about the impact of the training program. "We know
very well that the likely impact of this exercise is at the margin," Dauth told
the committee.
The U.S.-based Human Rights Watch, in its recently released annual survey
of human rights, confirms the bleak assessment of Australia's ambassador to
Burma.
"The ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) offered no signs
during the year that fundamental change was on the horizon," it wrote.
"No progress was made on ending forced labor. Counter-insurgency operations
by the Burmese military in several ethnic minority areas, accompanied by
extrajudicial executions, forced relocation, and other abuses, led to the
displacement of thousands inside Burma and the flight of yet more refugees
across the border into Thailand," Human Rights Watch reported.
"Burma's ethnic minority areas were the sites of continuing violence and
gross violations of human rights and humanitarian law. After relocation,
soldiers frequently burned homes, uprooted crops, and looted belongings that
villagers left behind."
"At the relocation sites, villagers had to contribute up to 15 days a month
of forced labor on infrastructure projects, portering, night watch, and the
physical maintenance of army camps," the rights watchdog added.
Thursday, August 24 6:22 PM SGT
Asean To Increase Size Of Balance Of Payment Aid Fund BANGKOK (Dow Jones)--The Thai
central bank said Thursday that central banks of members of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations have agreed to increase the size of the fund that has
been set up to help member nations with balance of payment problems.
The fund, known as Asean Swap Arrangement, or ASA, was increased to $1 billion from $200 million, Deputy Central Bank Governor Pakorn Malakul Na Ayudhya told reporters. He said the decision was made at the Asean Central Bank Forum in Brunei earlier this week. "As the size of the fund is quite small, no one has ever requested to use
it since its inception," Pakorn said.
Asean central banks believe that nation members may tap into the fund once
it becomes bigger, Pakorn said.
The fund was set up in 1977 by the founding members of Asean - Indonesia,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand.
Other non-founding members of Asean will make their contributions to the
fund on an equal basis and will be entitled to borrow from it, Pakorn added. ASA
allows nation members to borrow from the fund twice the size of their
contributions for a six-month period only.
The other Asean members are Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and
Vietnam.
BBC-Friday, 25 August, 2000, 15:12 GMT
16:12 UK
Profile: Aung San Suu Kyi By BBC News Online's Joe Havely As a symbol of heroic and peaceful resistance in the face of oppression,
Aung San Suu Kyi has come to be regarded in Burma and around the world as the
Nelson Mandela of south-east Asia.
Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in absentia in 1991, she had by then been
held under house arrest by Burma's military authorities for two years.
It would be another four years before she was finally allowed to leave her
home, although she remains restricted to the capital, Rangoon, and her movements
are closely monitored.
Now aged 55, Aung San Suu Kyi is the daughter of the assassinated Burmese
nationalist leader, General Aung San.
His resistance to British colonial rule culminated in Burma's independence
in 1948 and her relationship to him gives her a unique position in Burmese
society as the daughter of a national hero.
Political destiny
After receiving her initial education in Burma and India, Aung San Suu Kyi
travelled to the UK where she studied at Oxford University.
It was there that she met and married her husband, Michael Aris, an Oxford
University academic.
At the time Dr Aris knew his wife's destiny might ultimately lie with her
returning to Burma.
"Before we were married I promised my wife that I would never stand between
her and her country," he recalled.
It was not until 1988 however that Aung San Suu Kyi first came to
prominence in Burma when she returned to the country leaving her husband and
their two sons in Britain.
Democracy movement
There she quickly became the leader of a burgeoning pro-democracy movement
following the brutal repression of a pro-democratic uprising earlier that
summer.
It was a mission she labelled "Burma's second struggle for independence".
The movement quickly grew into a political party that went on to win an
overwhelming 82% of the vote in national elections in 1990 - despite the fact
that by that time she had already been under house arrest for more than a year.
The military regime, however, refused to relinquish power and stepped up
repression of her party, the National League for Democracy.
Natural leader
Martin Smith, a writer on Burmese affairs, says there are several reasons
why Aung San Suu Kyi proved such a natural leader.
"Her father was the founder of the democratic movement. So Suu Kyi in a way
had inherited that kind of tradition.
"But the second thing is of course down to Aung San Suu Kyi herself, her
role in the democracy movement and her speeches about the need for change in
Burmese society."
Inspired by the non-violent campaigns of the American civil rights leader
Martin Luther King, and India's Mahatma Gandhi, Aung San Suu Kyi organised
rallies after her return to Burma, and travelled the country, calling for
peaceful democratic reforms and free elections.
Popular support
She has tirelessly campaigned for change through dialogue and negotiation.
Her tolerance, patience and confidence - born from the knowledge that she
has immense popular support - have contrasted sharply with the paranoia and
bullying tactics of generals who hold power.
Much of her time is spent in military imposed isolation inside her run-down
villa on Rangoon's University Avenue - guards outside keep all but a select few
visitors well away.
To her millions of supporters across Burma she is known simply as "The
Lady".
Movement restricted
Despite Aun San Suu Kyi's official release from house arrest, there are
still de facto restrictions on her freedom to move and speak, and oppression of
pro-democracy activism continues.
In July 1998 she spent five days in a stand-off with military officials
outside Rangoon before being forcibly returned to the capital.
A month later she tried again and spent 13 days stationary on a road west
of the capital before medical concerns finally forced her to return to the city.
But her commitment to her cause was perhaps most starkly and tragically
illustrated a year later when her husband, still living in the UK, became
terminally ill with prostate cancer.
Believing that she would be blocked from returning to Burma, she declined
the generals' offer of a visa to visit him in England for a final reunion.
Denied the chance for a final farewell visit Michael Aris died in March
1999 - the couple had not seen each other for three years.
South China Morning Post
Friday, August 25, 2000
BURMA- Police stop pro-democracy leader travelling ASSOCIATED PRESS in Rangoon Updated at 3.44pm:
Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, attempting to travel outside Rangoon
for the first time in two years, was stopped by police on the capital's
outskirts on Thursday and had not returned home by Friday morning, sources close
to her said.
The 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, along with members of her political party, crossed the Rangoon River by ferry and were halted by police at suburban Dala, said the sources, who demanded anonymity. They were reportedly planning to travel to Kungyangon, 50km south of
Rangoon, to carry out reorganisation of the National League for Democracy's
youth wing.
Ms Suu Kyi opposes the military council which has ruled Burma with an iron
fist after brutally crushing a pro-democracy uprising she led in 1988.
A year later she was placed under a house arrest which lasted until 1995.
Since then Ms Suu Kyi's movements have been restricted by the military, which
refuses to enter a dialogue with her.
Ms Suu Kyi's group was scheduled to return to Rangoon on Thursday afternoon
but had not arrived back by Friday morning, a family member of the league's vice
chairman, Tin Oo, said in a telephone interview. Tin Oo and members of the youth
wing were with Ms Suu Kyi when she was stopped.
The family sources said the party was stranded in Tin Oo's car after police
aborted their travel plans.
The trip was Ms Suu Kyi's first outside Rangoon since several failed
attempts in 1998. She was stopped by police four times in July and August that
year as she tried to meet party members in outlying areas.
On two occasions in 1998, the persons she wanted to meet were brought to
her at the place where her car was stopped.
When her car was stopped last August on a trip to the Irrawaddy Delta town
of Pathein, she remained inside her vehicle for nearly six days in
protest.
Police finally brought her back to Rangoon in what she described as ''being
kidnapped''.
On the fourth occasion, in August, Ms Suu Kyi broke a 13-day stand-off and
returned home voluntarily on her doctor's advice.
South China Morning Post
Friday, August 25, 2000 BURMA-Australian effort to sway regime a 'waste of time' WILLIAM BARNES in Bangkok The Australian Government should have known it was wasting its time trying
to engage the Burmese military regime by hosting human rights seminars in
Rangoon, said a representative of the government in exile.
"It must be very embarrassing for the Australian Government . . . The opposition always warned the Australian Government it would be a wrong step," said Teddy Buri, a member of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma. The comments came after the contents of a confidential assessment by new
Australian Ambassador to Rangoon Trevor Wilson were revealed in Melbourne's The
Age newspaper yesterday.
"There are clearly no grounds of optimism that the military will soften its
harsh repression of dissidents," said Mr Wilson. The leaking of the diplomatic
cable, dated July 21, was awkwardly timed, having been sent only days after the
first of three planned human rights seminars were held in the Burmese capital.
The seminars were an initiative of Australian Foreign Affairs Minister
Alexander Downer to try to draw the military establishment out of its obdurate
stance against liberalisation.
But the cable appears to dismiss even the slight chance that the tactic
would succeed.
"The State Peace and Development Council [SPDC] shows no sign of being
interested in relinquishing power.
"There are clearly no grounds for optimism in the SPDC's unchanging
approach to opponents of the regime. Nor do observers in Rangoon detect any
signs that the regime is willing to bend in the direction of political
dialogue," the advice to Canberra said.
"Rather, all indicators point to the regime being determined to remain in
power at all costs, allowing only marginal reforms in the economy and society."
Four days before the cable was sent, 75 Burmese officials, hand-picked by
the regime, attended the first Australian human rights workshop.
Last year, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi said the visit to Rangoon by
Australia's Human Rights Commissioner Chris Sidoti risked sending a wrong signal
of approval for an illegal regime.
But a spokesman for Mr Downer said no one expected "instant results".
The NewYork Times - August 25,
2000
Myanmar's Suu Kyi in New Roadside Standoff YANGON, Myanmar (Reuters) - Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was
locked in a roadside standoff with police on Friday, running short of food and
water and preparing to spend a second night in her car after being stopped while
leaving Yangon.
It was the first time the 55-year-old Nobel laureate had tried to leave the
capital since another standoff two years ago, which ended after 13 days when an
increasingly poorly and dehydrated Suu Kyi gave up her protest and returned
home.
Her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), which won elections in
1990 by a landslide but has never been allowed to govern, said Suu Kyi and other
NLD officials had been traveling in two vehicles when they were stopped by
police on Thursday.
``They are running short of water and food today,'' the NLD's central
executive committee said in a statement.
Witnesses said the group's cars were parked a short distance off the road
south of Yangon where they were stopped. Nearby were an ambulance and a
truckload of police.
The NLD called on local villagers to provide Suu Kyi and her party with
water and food.
In London, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said he deplored the
treatment of Suu Kyi.
``We urge the authorities to lift these unnecessary and unlawful
restrictions immediately, and call on the regime to open an immediate dialogue
with...Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD,'' Cook said in a statement.
GOVERNMENT SAYS IT PROTECTING SUU KYI
The government confirmed it had stopped Suu Kyi but said this was for her
own protection because her journey did not have ``proper security
arrangements.''
``Security officials requested them not to proceed but stay in Dala town or
return to Yangon. Due to threats of violence by armed insurgent separatist
forces, travel by prominent persons to some parts of the country is at present
inadvisable,'' it said.
``The government will take all necessary action in protecting her from
these threats, while also safeguarding her human rights, as much as possible
including the right to freedom of movement,'' it said.
Suu Kyi was under house arrest for six years until 1995 and her movements
remain severely restricted.
In 1998 she twice spent several days in her car after being blocked by
police when trying to leave Yangon.
In July 1998, a five-day standoff was forcibly ended by the military, and a
month later she stayed in her car for 13 days on a road west of Yangon after
being stopped by police and refusing government demands to return to the
capital.
Suu Kyi said the military was trying to prevent her meeting supporters
outside Yangon and was violating her freedom of movement. She ended the protest
on August 24, exactly two years before she set out from Yangon Thursday.
In a rare interview this week, Suu Kyi renewed her call for international
pressure to help achieve democracy in Myanmar and said the recent opening of
universities, closed in 1996 after anti-government protests, was a sham.
The government said it regretted her comments.
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