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HEADLINE -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AFP - Aung San Suu Kyi "escorted" home as
Myanmar police raid party HQ
Reuters - Myanmar Opposition Leader's Roadside Stand-Off Ends
AFP - Senior members of Myanmar opposition under
house arrest
AFP - Aung San Suu Kyi: West's democracy
poster-child, but thwarted at home
AP - Myanmar Makes Suu Kyi End
Standoff
AP - Opposition: Myanmar Forces Suu Kyi To End
Standoff
The Guardian - Burma junta resorts to ridicule as Suu Kyi camp digs in
DMN - Myanmar's leaders may be moving closer to
accepting change
IT - Japan urged to use economics to solve Myanmar stand-off
The Times - Burma isolated, says
Gore
Financial Times - Suu Kyi's vigil pricks
conscience
The Nation - Burma
rebukes Surin amid outcry
The Nation - New Burma weekly takes less rabid approach to party line
The Nation - Concerted pressure needed on
Burma
LA Times - Burma's future hinges on next US
president
The Nation - NLD again hits junta with legal
action
BBC - Analysis: Frustration of Burmese
military
The Straits Times - Travel ban on
Suu Kyi: US slams Yangon
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BURMA RELATED NEWS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, September 2 8:49 PM SGT
Aung San Suu Kyi "escorted" home as Myanmar police raid party HQ YANGON, Sept 2 (AFP) - Myanmar's military authorities on Saturday
raided the headquarters of Aung San Suu Kyi's political party while
simultaneously announcing the opposition leader had been "escorted" home
following a lengthy roadside stand-off with the junta.
In an apparent crackdown on opposition forces, a large
number of riot police and military intelligence officers raided the headquarters
of the National League for Democracy (NLD) and seized "incriminatory material
and documents," a security official told AFP.
At least three senior members of the NLD's central
executive committee were also placed under "house arrest" and had their
telephone lines cut, diplomats contacted by AFP by telephone from Bangkok
said.
Other reports indicate that all 10 members of the
committee have been confined to their homes, including party leader Aung San Suu
Kyi and deputy chairman Tin Oo.
The raid, in the early hours of Saturday morning, came
just before an announcement that the showdown between the Nobel laureate and the
junta, which began on August 24, was over.
A government statement said Aung San Suu Kyi and her
supporters were "escorted" to the Myanmar capital at 1:30 a.m. (1930 GMT Friday)
and had "arrived home safe and sound this morning after their stay in Dallah
town."
The statement said that given "adverse weather" and
complaints by the NLD about conditions in Dallah, a motorcade had been
"facilitated by the government for their safe and covenient
return."
Aung San Suu Kyi and a dozen NLD supporters had been
camped out in their cars near Dallah, on the outskirts of Yangon, for nine days
after they were prevented from going to a party meeting in defiance of a ban on
travel outside the capital.
The opposition leader had shown no apparent signs of
wanting to end the confrontation and neither she nor any of her supporters could
be contacted to confirm how the stand off ended.
A similar deadlock in 1998 lasted 13 days, only ending
when poor health forced her to return home.
Diplomats in Yangon contacted from Bangkok said they
were alarmed at the apparent crackdown on the NLD.
One western diplomat described the raid as "seriously
concerning" and a major blow to any moves towards democracy.
He also expressed shock at the timing of the crackdown
just a week before the opening of the UN Millennium Summit conference in New
York.
"The timing is very puzzling ... it is a slap in the
face of the international community which has called for meaningful dialogue to
help the country on the road to democracy," he told AFP.
Diplomats from the United States and British embassies
who went to the NLD headquarters after the raid were turned away by military
intelligence officials and said they were denied any access to senior NLD
members.
It was not immediately clear whether any NLD members
remained inside the headquarters, which was surrounded by police and military
intelligence officials, but one diplomat said it appeared to be
empty.
Another western diplomat said they were pressing the
government to allow them to speak to Aung San Sui Kyi to check on her wellbeing
and that of other party members.
On Friday Myanmar's Foreign Minister Win Aung accused
some unnamed diplomats of "trying to interfere in our internal affairs" and
"blatantly violating diplomatic norms."
The way in which the regime had handled the latest
confrontation with its best-known opponent had attracted vehement international
criticism, and Saturday's actions appeared to show the government's patience had
snapped.
After initially referring to Aung San Suu Kyi's "rest"
outside "charming" Dallah township, the regime on Friday accused the opposition
leader of trying to create anarchy in Myanmar by provoking it into forcibly
ending the confrontation.
The NLD won a huge general election victory in 1990,
but the junta has never recognised the result and is accused by foreign critics
and human rights groups of severe re pression of opponents.
Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of Burmese nationalist
leader General Aung San, was under house arrest for six years and has
subsequently had her movements greatly restricted. Saturday September 2 12:17 AM ET
Myanmar Opposition Leader's Roadside Stand-Off Ends By Aung Hla Tun YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar's
military government said Saturday it had taken pro-democracy opposition leader
Aung San Suu Kyi back to her home in Yangon from a roadside encampment, ending a
marathon stand-off between the two sides.
A government statement said Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi, 55, and a
group of supporters with whom she had been traveling had been escorted back to
their homes at 1.30 a.m. (1800 GMT Friday) in a motorcade ``facilitated by the
government for their safe and convenient return.''
``Daw Suu Kyi, her travel companions and all the attendants arrived home
fit and sound this morning after their...stay in Dala town,'' it said.
Suu Kyi and other members of the National League for Democracy (NLD) were
not immediately available to confirm the report.
The move brings to an end more than a week of embarrassment for the ruling
generals, who have faced severe international criticism since the NLD leader,
her driver, and 14 NLD members were stopped by police as they headed out of
Yangon on August 24.
Residents in the Myanmar capital reported heavy security on Saturday around
the NLD's headquarters and the homes of several of its leading members.
It was the first time Suu Kyi had tried to leave Yangon since another
roadside confrontation in 1998 that lasted 13 days until deteriorating health
and dehydration forced her to return home.
This time Suu Kyi and her colleagues appeared well prepared for the
stand-off with ample food and water.
Stand-Off Highlights Restrictions
The NLD has effectively used the blockade to highlight the restrictions
placed on Suu Kyi and other opposition supporters and remind the world of their
pro-democracy cause.
The NLD won Myanmar's last election in 1990 by an overwhelming vote but has
never been allowed to govern.
Suu Kyi and her entourage refused all official requests to return home and
appeared to provoke frustration among the authorities, who made increasingly
strident attacks on the group and attempted to portray the protest as ``just a
game.''
The government statement Saturday said the military authorities had taken
into consideration complaints by the NLD about living conditions in Dala, a town
on the outskirts of Yangon, when ending the protest.
The NLD had said the dirt track where the cars had been halted was
gnat-infested and hazardous to health.
The stand-off has provoked a hostile reaction from several Western powers
who have long opposed the military government and called for democracy in the
impoverished country.
The United States, Canada, the European Union and the United Nations have
all called on the military to end restrictions on the movements of opposition
supporters and have lent support to Suu Kyi and her efforts to introduce
democracy.
Thailand has suggested the stand-off put into question whether a planned
meeting of European Union and Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN)
foreign ministers in Laos in December will go ahead.
Myanmar was controversially admitted to ASEAN three years ago but has
sometimes proved to be a diplomatic thorn in the side of the 10-member grouping,
complicating relations with the EU.
Thai official radio reported Saturday the Myanmar authorities had requested
additional security around the embassy in Bangkok, following a demonstration by
dozens of Myanmar dissident students at a refugee center west of The Thai
capital earlier in the week.
Saturday, September 2 7:53 PM SGT
Senior members of Myanmar opposition under house arrest BANGKOK, Sept 2 (AFP) - At
least three senior members of Myanmar's opposition party have been placed under
"house arrest" Saturday, diplomats in Yangon said.
The houses of the three members of the opposition National League for
Democracy central executive committee were surrounded by security forces and
their telephone lines had been cut, said a western diplomat who asked not to be
named.
Saturday, September 2 7:50 PM SGT
Aung San Suu Kyi: West's democracy
poster-child, but thwarted at home
YANGON, Sept 2 (AFP) - Twelve
years after she returned home from Europe, Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi
remains excluded from power by Myanmar's junta but has emerged as an icon of
democracy for the West.
Her ambitions for power have been thwarted at every step by the military
rulers, with the junta's boot firmly quashing any movement for substantive
political change.
The National League for Democracy (NLD) leader saw aspirations for
democracy in heady 1988 demonstrations evaporate in a hail of gunfire which left
thousands of protestors dead.
The next decade has been one of ultimately fruitless struggle against the
military and analysts say the opposition's fortunes have markedly
declined.
On Saturday, the junta said Aung San Suu Kyi had been "escorted" home
following a lengthy roadside stand-off in her car on a lonely stretch of country
in a protest of which her compatriots knew little or nothing but which the
international community watched intently.
She sparked the stand-off when she left Yangon on August 24 for a meeting
with the party's youth wing in the outlying town of Kawhmu, in defiance of an
order which confines her to the capital.
The junta said the showdown with her was over, as they raided the NLD
headquarters.
A similar deadlock in 1998 lasted 13 days, only ending when poor health
forced her to return home.
The daughter of Myanmar independence hero Aung San -- revered by opposition
and junta alike and who was assassinated months before the country won
independence from Britain in 1948 -- has paid a high price for her political
life.
A victim of her own popularity, she was placed under house arrest in 1989
under the "Law Protecting the State from Destructionists" and only granted
limited freedom in 1995.
Her thunderous silence during those years of house arrest galvanized global
opposition to the junta, drawing denunciations from the United Nations,
governments and human rights groups world wide. The award of a Nobel peace prize
in 1991 only served to reinforce that opposition.
Aung San Suu Kyi was born June 19, 1945, in Yangon and educated there until
1960 when her mother, Khin Kyi, was named ambassador to India, and then at Delhi
University. From 1964-67 she studied philosophy, politics and economics at St.
Hugh's College, Oxford University, England, earning a bachelor's degree.
In 1972 she married British academic Michael Aris. Their first son,
Alexander, was born in 1973 and their second, Kim, in 1977. The junta has seized
on her marriage as evidence she is not committed to Myanmar and frequently
refers to her simply as Mrs Aris.
Aris died in March 1999 after a long struggle with cancer. The junta denied
Aris a visa in the last months of his illness. Aung San Suu Kyi declined to
leave the country to be by her husband's side, an _expression_ of solidarity with
those strugging for democracy and her fear that she may not have been allowed
back in.
She had returned to Rangoon in April 1988 to tend to her sick mother and
found the city awash in protests against the military, which had seized power in
1962. The demonstrations quickly spread nationwide and grew in intensity and she
took on the role of intermediary in what was to become a bloody
confrontation.
In September 1988, she was named secretary-general and co-founder of the
National League for Democracy (NLD), an alliance of 105 opposition parties
challenging the junta.
Beginning in October 1988 she crisscrossed Burma, delivering more than 100
campaign speeches for the NLD ahead of national elections.
Aung San Suu Kyi mesmerized huge crowds with her beauty and speaking
ability, and because she was the daughter of Burma's founding father.
Despite being confined to her home, she led the NLD to a landslide victory
in 1990 polls. The junta has refused to accept the results.
She has held regular meetings of supporters at her compound and continues
to speak out against the junta.
But analysts say international attention has drifted from Myanmar and has
driven her to seek confrontations with the military.
In a rare and exclusive interview with AFP last year, she admitted that
intense pressure from Myanmar's military junta had exposed internal rifts in the
party.
The Nobel laureate said the government crackdown was a kind of "test" which
would ultimately strengthen her party.
Saturday, September 2 2:25 PM SGT
Myanmar security police raid opposition party headquarters YANGON, Sept 2 (AFP) -
Myanmar's military authorities on Saturday raided and occupied the headquarters
of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, seizing a large number of
documents, an official source said.
The police raid came hours after the military government said it had
"escorted" Aung San Suu Kyi and a group of her supporters back to Yangon from
the outskirts of the capital city.
Aung San Suu Kyi, 55, and a dozen NLD supporters had been camped out in
their cars near Dallah since August 24 when they were prevented from travelling
to a party meeting.
A heavy security presence, including riot police and military intelligence,
was placed around the NLD headquarters, a private home just to the north of
Yangon's centre, eyewitnesses said.
Diplomats from the United States and British embassies who went to the
headquarters were seen being turned away by foreign ministry
representatives.
"A huge amount of incriminatory material and documents have been seized
during the raid," a security official told AFP.
Saturday, September 2 9:56 AM SGT
Myanmar Makes Suu Kyi End Standoff YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - Riot
police forced opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to return to the capital,
ending a nine-day standoff against Myanmar's military government, a top official
in Suu Kyi's party said Saturday.
``We raided at around 11 p.m. (Friday) and forcibly taken away,'' said Tin
Oo, Suu Kyi's deputy in the National league for Democracy.
He could provide few details as security personnel shooed reporters away
from his house in Yangon where he was speaking. He said those accompanying Suu
Kyi, including himself, were taken back to their homes, but he was not aware of
Suu Chi's whereabouts.
The Nobel Peace laureate and members of her NLD party were stopped by
police on Aug. 24 in the Yangon suburb of Dala on their way to conduct political
activities in the countryside.
The group, including two senior members of the party and 12 members of its
youth wing, was blocked from traveling further and ordered to return to Yangon.
They have camped out in their two vehicles and refused to move.
The NLD had said Suu Kyi would not return to Yangon until she ``reaches her
destination and accomplishes party organizational duties.''
Suu Kyi has called for foreign sanctions against Myanmar's government and a
tourist boycott as a way of putting pressure on the military regime to improve
human rights conditions and restore democracy.
Myanmar is also known as Burma.
The activist is the daughter of the country's late independence leader,
Gen. Aung San. She has led Myanmar's opposition movement since 1988, when the
military smashed mass pro-democracy demonstrations and asserted its
authoritarian rule.
She won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for her nonviolent political activities,
but was held under house arrest from 1989 to 1995.
The military held a general election in 1990, but refused to allow
parliament to convene after the NLD won a landslide victory. Since then, her
party members have suffered arrest and harassment from the government.
The current standoff was triggered when Suu Kyi made her first attempt to
travel outside the capital since two years ago, when the government blocked four
such attempts.
On the last occasion, in August 1998, she stayed in her vehicle for 13 days
before returning home for health reasons.
Saturday, September 2 4:29 PM SGT
Opposition: Myanmar Forces Suu Kyi To End Standoff YANGON, Myanmar (AP)--Nearly
200 riot police raided a roadside convoy and forced Aung San Suu Kyi to return
to the capital, ending a nine-day standoff between the opposition leader and
Myanmar's military regime, a top official in Suu Kyi's party said Saturday.
The government confirmed the move, saying Suu Kyi and her party "arrived home safe and sound this (Saturday) morning." The 55-year-old Nobel Peace laureate was stopped by police Aug. 24 in the
Yangon suburb of Dala as she and party colleagues attempted to travel to the
countryside for political organization work.
Foreign Diplomats Criticized
Later, security forces also sealed off the headquarters of Suu Kyi's
National League for Democracy in Yangon, and a key military leader criticized
foreign diplomats for meddling in the country's internal affairs.
About 10 policemen blocked the gate of the NLD headquarters at the foot of
Yangon's famed Shwedagon Pagoda and prepared barriers for road blocks, but did
not seal off the road leading to the building.
Telephones of senior NLD members were not operating Saturday.
A government press release, titled "Dala incident ends happily," said that
at 1:30 a.m. Saturday, Suu Kyi and her party were "escorted back to their
residences in Yangon in a motorcade facilitated by the government for their safe
and convenient return."
The action, the release said, was taken because of monsoon season rains,
complaints by her party about living conditions in the stalled convoy, and to
guarantee Suu Kyi's personal safety.
Gen. Khin Nyunt, secretary of the ruling military council, said Friday that
some Yangon-based diplomats were "overtly cooperating" with domestic groups and
attempting to pressure the government. His remarks were carried in official
newspapers Saturday.
The NLD is frequently criticized by the military for relying on support
from Western countries, particularly the United States and Britain.
The current standoff was triggered when Suu Kyi made her first attempt to
travel outside the capital since two years ago, when the government blocked four
such attempts.
On the last occasion, in August 1998, she stayed in her vehicle for 13 days
before returning home for health reasons. In July 1998, Suu Kyi accused the
government of kidnapping her to end a six-day standoff, saying police had held
her down, taken the wheel of her car and driven her back to Yangon.
On the eve of the latest government move against her, Foreign Minister Win
Aung said Suu Kyi was trying to attract international attention by provoking
authorities into arresting her.
Suu Kyi has led the opposition movement in Myanmar, also known as Burma,
since 1988, when the military smashed mass pro-democracy demonstrations and
asserted its authoritarian rule.
She has urged foreign pressure on the military regime and has repeatedly
been rebuffed in attempts to hold a dialogue with Myanmar's rulers. In 1991 she
won the Nobel Peace Prize for her nonviolent political activities, but was held
under house arrest from 1989 to 1995.
The military held a general election in 1990, but refused to allow
parliament to convene after the NLD won a landslide victory.
The Guardian
Burma junta resorts to ridicule as Suu Kyi camp digs in John Gittings, East Asia editor Saturday September 2, 2000 The United States has denounced Burma's treatment of its opposition leader,
Aung San Suu Kyi, as the country's military junta steps up its campaign against
her.
Ms Suu Kyi has been camped in a suburb of the Burmese capital, Rangoon, since August 24, when she was blocked from driving further in defiance of a ban on her leaving the city. The US secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, said she was appalled that
Ms Suu Kyi had been denied the freedom to travel within her own country.
"Her work gives voice to the long-suffering people of Burma whose hopes for
a democratic society have been crushed by a repressive regime," said Mrs
Albright. "Her voice will not be silenced."
But in Burma the only voice being heard is that of the junta, which is
combining ridicule with threats against Ms Suu Kyi.
She had now become an "enemy of the people", the junta's official website
said yesterday. It argued that she is "constitutionally disqualified to stand
for elected office" because "[her] bloodline remains only in Britain."
Ms Suu Kyi's late husband was British and they have two sons, but she has
taken care to maintain her Burmese citizenship.
Earlier, Rangoon published photographs with satirical captions suggesting
that the encampment of Ms Suu Kyi's small group in the suburb of Dala was just a
pleasant outing. One picture shows her car next to a hut and a tent, with the
caption: "Daw [Ms] Suu Kyi and her travel companions continuing their stay in
the new rest camp at Dala."
Other pictures show members of her party, the National League for Democracy
(NLD), "going for an afternoon dip" in a nearby river and "visiting a Chinese
noodle shop".
Ms Albright's criticism of the junta was backed on Thursday by the US vice
president, Al Gore, who said that "each day the Burmese authorities restrain
[her], Burma's isolation from the international community deepens".
Yesterday the UN high commissioner for human rights, Mary Robinson,
expressed her concern for the safety of Ms Suu Kyi and urged Burma to resolve
the standoff "in line with international human rights standards".
"I urge the two sides to engage, as soon as possible, in a substantive
political dialogue" she added.
The standoff comes at a very bad time for the junta, said Dr Peter Carey, a
family friend and south-east Asia historian at Oxford University.
"It is split between different factions, and the economy is at a low ebb,"
he said yesterday. "China is still an ally but there are limits to the open
cheque."
But the NLD is also in a weak position. The party is struggling to survive
outside Rangoon and Ms Suu Kyi's attempt to link up with party members beyond
the capital is important, said Dr Carey, "to add substance to her claim that it
is still functioning".
The junta's propaganda offensive this week has portrayed Ms Suu Kyi and the
NLD as uninterested in dialogue and preferring to indulge in "symbolic
gestures".
It hints that the country's universities, which have only recently reopened
after being shut down in 1996, may be closed again if there are more political
protests. Ms Suu Kyi was attempting a journey to meet members of the NLD's youth
league when her path was blocked at Dala.
U Maung Maung, a tea-shop owner from central Rangoon, is quoted saying that
his customers "are concerned about their children's education and some have even
suggested [a law] to prevent students from participating in party politics".
The last time that Ms Suu Kyi tried to leave Rangoon, in August 1998, she
camped with her car for 13 days before returning home on medical advice.
Western news reports on dissent within the NLD are cited by the junta as
evidence that Ms Suu Kyi "may not be all that safe even within her own political
party". Yesterday's feature on the junta's website quoted a foreign report that
party members had been sacked by her "as traitors or as agents of [Burmese]
military intelligence".
It is widely assumed by NLD sympathisers that the party, whose members are
subject to harassment and imprisonment, has been penetrated by Rangoon's secret
service.
In a statement on Thursday Rangoon accused Ms Suu Kyi of staging her
demonstration ahead of the UN millennium summit in New York next week.
It claimed she was disrupting a "transition towards democracy".
The NLD won a huge general election victory in 1990 but the junta has never
allowed it to take power.
The Dallas Morning
News
Myanmar's leaders may be moving closer to accepting change 09/02/2000 By Joshua Kurlantzick / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News YANGON, Myanmar – In the opaque, tightly controlled world of Myanmar
politics, rumors pass for news, and shifts in government policy are difficult to
ascertain. In recent months, however, the country's hard-line ruling junta
appears to have inched closer to embracing the outside world.
The junta has invited international monitoring organizations into the
Southeast Asian country, and it has expressed willingness to improve working
conditions.
But some experts question whether the government is serious about changing
its ways, and in the last week it again blocked opposition leader and democracy
advocate Aung San Suu Kyi from traveling outside the capital.
The military has ruled Myanmar, also known as Burma, in various guises
since 1962.
In 1990, the military organized a general election that was won by the
National League of Democracy, or NLD, led by Ms. Suu Kyi, who was later awarded
the Nobel Peace Prize "for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human
rights.''
But the junta nullified the election, and since then it has allegedly
jailed many NLD members. The extent of the crackdown is difficult to verify, as
the government seldom allows journalists access to sensitive areas.
Driving a wedge
Myanmar's alleged human-rights abuses have driven a wedge between it and
other states. In the decade after the 1990 election, many countries, including
the United States, slapped sanctions on the Yangon government.
On Aug. 24, Ms. Suu Kyi and 14 party members were stopped as they attempted
to travel outside the capital to organize supporters. For the past week, they
had been locked in a standoff with government authorities, stranded in their
vehicles on a road in the Yangon suburb of Dala.
But Saturday, riot police forced Ms. Suu Kyi to return to the capital, a
top official in her party said.
"At about 11 p.m. last night several riot police raided the place and
forcibly took Aung San Suu Kyi and all of us," said Tin Oo, Ms. Suu Kyi's deputy
in the National League for Democracy. Security forces prevented him from giving
out details, The Associated Press reported.
It was Ms. Suu Kyi's first attempt to travel outside the city since August
1998, when she spent 13 days in her vehicle before returning home for health
reasons.
Before the latest standoff, however, there had been minor breakthroughs in
Myanmar's relationship with the world.
In May, the junta allowed a mission from the International Labor
Organization (ILO), one of Myanamr's longtime critics, to visit the country to
analyze labor conditions.
At the conclusion of the labor organization's visit, government spokesman
Hla Min told reporters that "Burma is willing to cooperate with the ILO to
improve our labor standards." Analysts based in Bangkok said the statement
appeared to represent a genuine desire not to further offend the labor
organization.
After the ILO's visit, the organization released a report censuring Myanmar
for failing to stop using forced labor. Yet in a compromise, the labor
organization gave Myanmar until Nov. 30 to reduce forced labor. If it fails to
meet the ILO's demands, Myanmar faces expulsion from the organization.
Even before the ILO visit, the junta had granted permission to the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to begin inspecting Myanmar's
prisons for human-rights abuses.
Nations respond
Responding to these initiatives, the European Union, which broke off
ministerial-level contact with Myanmar in 1996 because of concerns over reported
rights abuses, invited Myanmar leaders to a June 26 meeting in Lisbon designed
to restore dialogue between the country and the EU.
"Burma's regime is still largely unconcerned about its image, but its
dealings with the ILO, ICRC, and EU show that its younger generals may be
growing more receptive to the need for reform," said Narongchai Akrasanee,
Thailand's former trade minister and an expert on regional affairs.
Some members of the junta have realized that their country desperately
needs foreign development aid to ward off economic breakdown and famine, he
said. But the aid is linked to reforms, such as allowing in international
monitoring agencies.
In its most recent report on Myanmar, Amnesty International accused the
junta of continuing to perpetrate appalling abuses, including torture, slavery
and extrajudicial executions.
A survey this year on the use of children in war said that Myanmar is one
of the world's most prolific users of child soldiers, many of whom are battered
and sexually abused.
In addition, Myanmar's charm offensive toward foreign groups and states has
not translated into better relations between the junta and Ms. Suu Kyi's
opposition party. According to sources in Yangon, the junta continues to arrest
NLD members.
Some observers say that only complete economic collapse, abetted by
sanctions, could force drastic change.
"It is a difficult thing to say, since sanctions hurt average Burmese
people, but perhaps the foreign sanctions will precipitate change ... since
nothing else but complete poverty may prompt the Burmese to risk their lives and
launch protests," said Southeast Asia scholar Sunai Phasuk.
Today, the Yangon junta presides over socioeconomic shambles. Rich in
natural resources, Burma's per capita income is only about $400. The country has
almost no foreign exchange reserves. The kyat, Burma's currency, depreciates at
frightening speed.
A confidential World Bank report delivered to the junta last year warned
that the country's economy was caught in a dangerous downward spiral because of
half-hearted privatization and foreign states' sanctions.
"The regime has no political legitimacy, so, like Indonesia, it has to
claim legitimacy by keeping the peace and delivering some growth. ... In the
face of economic collapse and potential famine, this legitimacy could be
seriously threatened," said one well-placed Yangon source.
Joshua Kurlantzick is a free-lance journalist based in Bangkok, Thailand.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Times of India - Sep 1,
2000.
Asia-Pacific Japan urged to use economics to solve Myanmar stand-off TOKYO: Japanese opposition leader Takako Doi called on the Tokyo government
on Friday to use the leverage of its economic aid to help settle a stand-off
between Myanmar's military regime and Aung San Suu Kyi.
In a letter to Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and Foreign Minister Yohei Kono,
the chairwoman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) demanded freedom of movement
for the Myanmar opposition leader.
"We wish the Japanese government to strictly scrutinise the responsibility
of the military regime, with a view to promotion of democracy and protection of
human rights, in dealing with economic cooperation," the letter said.
"We also believe that the Japanese government must make its position clear
to the international community with regard to its diplomatic stance."
The letter was signed by 16 female SDP members of parliament and handed to
Kunihiko Makita, head of the foreign ministry's Asian affairs bureau.
Makita said the government was concerned about the situation in Myanmar and
it intended to make efforts "in a patient manner" to help solve the
confrontation.
Doi told a news conference later that "economic cooperation must not be
given to regimes which routinely oppress and ignore human rights."
In Yangon on Friday, Myanmar's Foreign Minister Win Aung accused Aung San
Suu Kyi of trying to create anarchy in Myanmar by provoking it into forcibly
ending a nine-day roadside confrontation outside the capital.
He said the protest was "obviously premeditated" and designed to embarrass
the military regime ahead of the United Nations Millennium summit.
Aung San Suu Kyi and a dozen supporters from her National League for
Democracy (NLD) have been camped out in their cars on the outskirts of Yangon
since August 24 when they were blocked from travelling to a party meeting.
The NLD has vowed its leader will stand her ground until the military lifts
its ban on her travelling outside Yangon. (AFP)
The Times
September 2 2000 UNITED STATES Burma isolated, says Gore FROM DAMIAN WHITWORTH IN WASHINGTON THE Clinton Administration castigated Burma for its treatment of Daw Aung
San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader, as her roadside stand-off with the
authorities entered a second week.
Vice-President Al Gore said yesterday that the refusal to allow her to travel outside the capital, Rangoon, was "an offence to free people everywhere. Each day that the Burmese authorities restrain Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's isolation from the international community deepens". Madeleine Albright, the Secretary of State, said that the opposition leader
was a "champion for democracy" and would never be silenced.
Daw Suu Kyi and a dozen supporters have stood their ground since August 24
when they sought to defy a ban on travelling outside the capital but were
blocked by police.
The National League for Democracy (NLD) has vowed that its 55-year-old
leader will fight a "war of endurance" over the right to move freely around her
own country. Burma's generals have been equally stubborn, insisting that the
Nobel Peace Prize winner be stopped for her own safety in Dallah, south of
Rangoon.
The NLD won a huge general election victory in 1990, but the junta has
never recognised the result and is accused by human rights groups of severe
repression of opponents.
Financial Times - Sep 2, 2000.
asia pacific Suu Kyi's vigil pricks conscience By Amy Kazmin and William Barnes Published: September 1 2000 16:19GMT | Last Updated: September 1 2000 16:26GMT When she set out from her home Rangoon 10 days ago, Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's opposition leader, and 14 of her supporters were attempting to travel 50kms to visit members of her National League for Democracy, who are under relentless pressure from the military regime to sever ties to the organisation. That journey was brought to a halt by military police. But Ms Suu Kyi's
insistence on remaining in her car until she be allowed to proceed has pricked
the conscience of the international community at a time when it is stepping up
its engagement with the military regime, despite her appeals for its continued
isolation.
"She's making sure that they don't forget her," said Ravi Nair, the
co-ordinator of the Asia Pacific Forum for Human Rights.
"Clearly, she senses that even her traditional friends in the west are
tilting towards dealing with the military junta and that she in turn is being
isolated. She's putting her hat into the ring to say she's still around." Though
journalists and diplomats have been barred from Dala, the small town where Ms
Suu Kyi is keeping her lonely vigil, the stand-off has served as a potent
reminder of the repressive measures Burma's military rulers use to stifle
dissent. The US, Europe and the United Nations have reached with anger,
demanding that the Nobel laureate be allowed to complete her journey.
"It illustrates the complete unreasonableness of the regime," said a
Bangkok-based western diplomat. "The claim that she is basically free to operate
is not really true."
Yet if Ms Suu Kyi's defiant gesture ends in the manner of her last 13-day
stand-offs in 1998 - when deteriorating health and dehydration forced her to
return home - it seems unlikely that it will reverse the trend of countries such
as Japan and Australia or the European Union deepening their contacts with the
regime.
In the 10 years since Burma's election - in which Ms Suu Kyi's NLD won 82
per cent of the popular vote but was prevented from taking power - efforts by
liberal countries to isolate the military rulers have failed to yield tangible
results. The regime has consistently refused to open a dialogue with Ms Suu Kyi,
maintains tight control over society and appears impervious to international
pressure. US economic sanctions have not made much difference either, as China
and Burma's southeast Asian neighbours are all too willing to do business with
the regime.
As a result, frustrated western governments are exploring other ways of
making an impact, while countries such as Japan and India are already deeply
engaged. "Nothing has worked," said one western diplomat who travels regularly
to Burma. "The human rights abuses are so flagrant and it doesn't get better."
Concerned with countering China's ever-strengthening political and economic
influence, Japan has long been funneling funds to the regime and even provided
development loans to refurbish Rangoon airport. India - which denounced the
junta until it also started worrying about Beijing's influence in the region -
now conducts joint military operations with Burma in the insurgency-prone areas
along their shared border.
"India has softened considerably," said David Steinberg, the director of
Asian studies at Georgetown University. "They're deathly afraid of China. The
Japanese are very concerned about the Chinese position too. They desperately
want to go in there and provide aid - more than just humanitarian assistance and
Rangoon airport." Among non-Asian countries Australia has gone the furthest,
with the launch of a controversial initiative to help Burma's military rulers
create a human rights commission. The decision to offer training was made
despite Ms Suu Kyi's plea that such a commission would be a farce and would
bestow undeserved legitimacy on the regime. Australia has defended the
programme, citing the failure of past efforts to make progress on human rights.
The EU, which cut off its formal dialogue with the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations after Burma was admitted in 1997, has also adjusted its strategy.
It decided to resume its formal talks with Asean at a ministerial meeting in
December in Laos, where Burmese and European officials will be brought together.
However, the EU also strengthened sanctions on the Burmese military by
freezing assets of key figures and banning exports that could be used for
military purposes.
"There is already a fair amount of pressure being but on, but also a sort
of opening," a western diplomat said of the EU strategy.
Critics, however, argue that the policy of "constructive engagement" - as
epitomised by Asean's full embrace of the junta - have also been unsuccessful in
pushing the generals towards political change. That is a message many analysts
believe Ms Suu Kyi hopes to drive home in her protest. "She wants them to take a
step backwards and do some introspection," says Mr Nair. "Two or three years of
engagement that many of these countries have pursued hasn't done anything. The
Burmese junta hasn't moved forward."
Behind closed doors, even governments now attempting to engage the military
seem pessimistic about the outcome. In a cable to Canberra that prompted a
furore in Australia when it was leaked last week, Trevor Wilson, Australia's
ambassador to Burma, wrote darkly that there were "no grounds for optimism" that
the military would stop its strong-arm tactics in quashing dissent.
The cable went on to say, "all indicators point to the regime being
determined to remain in power at all cost, allowing only marginal reforms in the
economy and society".
The Nation - Sep 2, 2000.
Burma rebukes Surin amid
outcry
RANGOON - Burma yesterday rebuked Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan for
voicing concern that the latest confrontation with opposition leader Aung San
Suu Kyi would have an adverse impact on the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (Asean).
"Publishing such remarks are not fruitful to the good neighbourly relations
as well as harmony and solidarity among fellow Asean members," Burmese Foreign
Minister Win Aung said of Surin's comments.
In a rare interview with the foreign media, Win Aung said: "Such a
statement, if true, could harm relations among the member countries of Asean,
whose cardinal principle is not to interfere in others' internal affairs."
Reuters reported Win Aung as saying Burma had written to fellow Asean
members to explain the situation and had sent a separate letter to Surin, but
would not reveal the contents.
Win Aung's comments came as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary
Robinson, joined the international chorus of criticism against the junta's
action.
Suu Kyi, 55, has been camping out in a paddy field near Dala, about 15
kilometres outside Rangoon, since August 24, after her two-car convoy was
stopped by authorities from leaving the metropolitan area.
Suu Kyi, the leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD), has refused
to return to Rangoon, choosing instead to camp in her car with 13 NLD members in
what has been termed a "war of endurance".
Surin, who is presently in Australia, has lobbied the European Union hard
to agree to resume ministerial-level talks with their Asean counterparts,
despite European objections to allowing Burma's military delegates to join any
such forum.
Earlier this year the EU agreed to send ministers to an Asean-EU economic
cooperation meeting scheduled to take place in Vientiane, Laos, in December.
The EU has postponed ministerial-level talks with Asean for the past three
years, and now the Thai Foreign Ministry is worried the EU will pull out again
because of the Suu Kyi-junta stand-off.
Meanwhile, a group of 32 Thai senators signed a protest letter addressed to
the Burmese government over the treatment of Suu Kyi. They urged Rangoon to stop
what they considered a gross violation of human rights, said Kraisak Choonhavan,
chairman of the Senate's foreign affairs committee.
Burma yesterday rejected a call by the international community for United
Nations special envoy Razali Ismail to play a role in resolving the stand-off.
Win Aung said those who recommended the use of Ismail, a Malaysian
career-diplomat named as UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special envoy to
Burma a few months ago, "were trying to interfere with the internal affairs of
Myanmar [Burma]".
Win Aung revealed at the press conference that British Ambassador John
Jenkins and US Charge d'Affairs Priscilla Clapp had flown to Kuala Lumpur
earlier this week to seek Ismail's assistance in defusing the stand-off
peacefully.
"These diplomats are not following strictly internationally-accepted norms
of diplomacy," admonished Win Aung.
The Foreign Minister said the stand-off was a political ploy by the
opposition, designed to embarrass the regime at the upcoming UN Millennium
Summit in New York.
"Aung San Suu Kyi wanted to disturb peace and tranquility in the country,
expecting people to come out on the streets and create anarchy," Win Aung said.
"It was a premeditated plan orchestrated with some foreign powers."
He did not, however, say which other countries were involved in the alleged
plan.
When asked why Myanmar's pro-democracy leader would have orchestrated such
a stand-off, Win Aung said: "Aung San Suu Kyi expected foreign intervention in
the country if it fell into chaos and anarchy, as in (East) Timor.
"Myanmar is not East Timor or Indonesia. We will never accept any foreign
intervention," the junta minister went on. "She is provoking her own arrest and
imprisonment."
Meanwhile, in Geneva, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary
Robinson, said: "I am deeply concerned about reports of the violation of the
rights to freedom of movement and _expression_ of respected human rights defender
and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar.
"The tyres of her car were reportedly let out, and her way was blocked by
two lorries. Despite her insistence to be allowed to attend the party meeting,
the government has reportedly refused to let her proceed," Robinson said.
The Nation - Sep 2, 2000.
New Burma weekly takes less rabid
approach to party line
BY KEN YWIN
BURMA'S "first international weekly journal", The Myanmar Times, is a more
subtle mouthpiece for the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) than
the official New Light of Myanmar.
The weekly, published in Rangoon, balances vilification of the SPDC's
enemies with features emphasising positive trends in the military junta-ruled
country.
Managing director and editor-in-chief Ross Dunkley, who purportedly worked
as a consultant to the Vietnamese government, attempts to balance the contents
of the 24-page English-language periodical with domestic and foreign features,
as well as two sports pages. The well laid-out weekly projects an objective to
make money through advertising, which at present constitutes about three pages.
Dunkley places a daily boxed offering of the SPDC's political, economic and
social objectives next to the paper's masthead, which lists Sonny Shwe as
executive director and head of the marketing team under a division of Myanmar
Consolidated Media Co Ltd.
Leafing through two recent issues dated August 21-27 and August
28-September 3, one sees a call for a clampdown on piracy in the video industry
by a deputy minister of information, as well as an interview with a US tourist
agent who criticises the sanctions placed on travel to Burma. A Myanmar Times
reporter shoots down the anti-Burma travel campaign organised by UK Tourist
Concern and the Burma Campaign and cites what it says is the overwhelming
support for increased tourism to Burma among Daily Telegraph readers.
Another correspondent extols the "brighter picture of the country's living
standards" from the United Nations' human development assessment for 2000.
Then on a global platform, the editor-in-chief prostrates himself before
the foreign minister to proclaim how the latter's "calm advance wins
international acclaim".
A "Street Talk" column that airs the man-on-the-street's opinions touches
mainly on non-sensitive issues such as books and how business is treating
traders.
The Myanmar Times ran an article on a Reuters report on Wal-Mart chain
stores selling clothes made by "forced labour" in Burma. It attempts to clarify
through a Reuters correspondent in Burma who says, "It is very good to see that
even half-educated workers are getting fair salaries in the [garment] industry."
The "Time Out" section is admittedly interesting, claiming a "complete
guide to life in Myanmar" in which a spotlight on Rangoon takes readers on a
tour of the "grand old facades from a bygone era", an 18-year-old university
student is crowned "Miss Style 2000", and a pictorial of Singapore's National
Day celebrations features the most honoured guest -- who else but secretary
number one Lt Gen Khin Nyunt.
Unlike the official New Light of Myanmar, which publishes the happenings of
the country's top brass along with full texts of their speeches, The Myanmar
Times attempts to balance scurrilous attacks on the pro-democracy movement with
"non-political issues such as the government's attempt to suppress drugs, the
opening of many small businesses and attempts to improve the educational
system".
One has to wait and see if the publishers of The Myanmar Times will put the
newspaper before the military government or vice versa. the military government
before the newspaper, following the route of other Burmese newspapers modelled
on Soviet-style propaganda.
The Nation - Sep 3, 2000.
THE SUNDAY EDITORIAL: Concerted pressure needed on Burma NOBEL peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was brought home by armed force on
Saturday, ending the nine-day stand-off between her and the authorities.
However, the incident showed that the stand-off between the Burmese junta and
the rest of the world will continue.
Suu Kyi has accomplished her political objective in reminding the
international community of just how repressive the junta leaders in Rangoon are.
Her defiance also highlighted the fact her party won the election in May 1990
and that it continues to be denied power.
Western countries expressed concern about the situation and deplored
Burma's treatment of Suu Kyi. As a member of Asean, Thailand issued a warning
that Asean's image would be further eroded by the affair. Suggestions were made
that the Asean troika should be activated to look into the incident.
It seems that Burma is going to face a bumpy road in the next few months.
With a series of meetings and evaluations of political and labour conditions in
the country, Burma will be once again under the microscope of the United
Nations. As in previous years, the UN General Assembly will consider a report on
the Burmese situation. The report is expected to be harsher this time around.
Then Burma is expected to be the focus of discussions when European and
Asian leaders gather in Seoul for their third summit meeting.
At the upcoming review of the labour situation inside Burma by the
International Labour Organisation in mid-November, Burma will have to prove that
it is heeding international concerns. If Burma remains as recalcitrant and
adamant as it has been in the past in ignoring the recommendations made by ILO,
then a number of proposed sanctions could take effect immediately, which could
lead to Burma's expulsion from the body in the future.
At the moment, the much-awaited Asean-EU ministerial meeting has not yet
been cancelled. However, it could end up in limbo if Burma continues to be
intransigent.
Certainly, it all boils down to what Asean is planning to do about Burma.
For one thing, the grouping can no longer remain silent. After all, Asean has
failed to prove that peer pressure and the Asean Way have succeeded in making
Burma more responsive to the concerns of the regional and global communities. In
fact, Burma remains as rigid as ever.
Optimism that something for the better will occur in Burma is evaporating
fast. The appointment of a new UN special representative for Burma and the "wait
and see" attitude of the West had given rise to that hope. However, last week's
stand-off is the most visible reminder to the world that the junta could not
care less.
The most efficient way to deal with Burma is to have the West, Asean,
China, Japan and Australia working together to bring pressure to bear on the
regime in an organised manner. Without such a concerted approach, the political
oppression in Burma will never end. The lack of a well co-ordinated effort has
already weakened the individual approaches even though they share similar
objectives in helping to bring about a better political environment inside
Burma.
How long do we have to wait before change and political dialogue get
started in Burma? Should the Rangoon regime be given more time to come up with
changes? The junta has been using the extra time to twist and distort the real
situation and to suppress people. So, it seems one thing is certain: that any
change in the future will not come from the regime.
Los Angeles Times - Sep 3,
2000.
SUNDAY COLUMN: Burma's future hinges on next US president BY JIM MANN WASHINGTON - Burma may seem like a faraway place, yet it serves as the best
indicator in the world today of the role of values and principles in US foreign
policy.
And it raises questions of considerable importance to the presidential
campaign: How might a new Bush-Cheney administration, with close ties to the US
oil industry, reconcile the conflict between commercial interests and democratic
ideals in a place like Burma?
Over the past few days, Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi has been
trapped in a muddy field outside Burma's capital city Rangoon because the
military junta refuses to let her travel around the country.
Aung San Suu Kyi, a disciple of non-violence, is often referred to as the
leader of Burma's opposition forces. But in a way that term is misleading,
because by rights she should be considered the country's elected leader.
Her party, the National League for Democracy, won Burma's only election in
1990 with an overwhelming 82 per cent of the nationwide vote. But the military
leaders refused to give up power. Suu Kyi has spent much of the last decade
under house arrest.
She is now challenging the restrictions that have prohibited her from
leaving Rangoon. Last Thursday, she and 14 supporters left the capital to try to
meet party leaders in a town 50 kilometres away. Police vehicles blocked the
road and forced them into a field, where they have remained for several days,
sleeping in their vehicles or in tents.
Burma's military leaders say they want to keep Suu Kyi safe from
"terrorists" or others who might want to harm her.
Exactly who might want to hurt her? Perhaps the regime or its supporters,
the government's own statements suggest. On Tuesday, the government added a
chilling Orwellian twist to its earlier rationalisations: Suu Kyi needs to be
protected, it asserted, because there are "sound reasons for resentment and
indignation toward her". It accused her of encouraging foreign governments to
impose economic sanctions against Burma.
The United States is among the countries that have imposed sanctions.
However much the Clinton administration has wavered in its policies toward other
countries, notably China, it has been consistent and relatively tough over the
past eight years in dealing with Burma.
A 1996 law supported by the administration prohibits new American
investment in Burma. The United States also has blocked international lending to
Burma. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has repeatedly voiced strong
personal support for Suu Kyi and for democracy in Burma.
Privately, administration officials argue that Burma represents a classic
example of where economic sanctions are justified. The regime is unusually
repressive, and the sanctions deny it legitimacy, administration officials say.
American commercial interests in Burma are minuscule, in comparison with China.
And the US sanctions serve to restrain other governments, such as Japan, from
moving too quickly to invest in Burma.
This week, the administration issued a strong statement supporting Suu
Kyi's right to travel freely. "Freedom of movement is a fundamental,
internationally recognised human right," the State Department noted.
Still, the administration's unusually firm stand against Burma has been
unpopular with the business community. The anti-boycott organisation USAEngage,
set up and funded by US corporations, has urged Congress to lift the sanctions
against Burma. Oil companies such as Unocal, the leading American investor in
Burma, have been eager to expand their operations there.
What would a new Republican administration do? To what extent would it
support Suu Kyi's movement for democracy? Would it stick with the Clinton
administration's policies of keeping economic pressure on the Burma junta?
Both George W Bush and Dick Cheney are former oil executives. Cheney, in
particular, has been fervent in his opposition to the use of unilateral American
sanctions. "They almost never work," he argued in a speech two years ago.
Those facts would seem to suggest that a new Bush administration would ease
up on the existing Clinton-Gore policy toward Burma. And yet within the
Republican Party, there are also currents in the opposite direction.
During the middle to late 1980s, the Republicans developed a strong
tradition of support for democratic leaders and movements in Asia.
The Reagan administration pressed successfully for democratic changes in
the Philippines and in South Korea. Some of the leading alumni of that
administration, such as Richard Armitage and Paul Wolfowitz, are now serving as
foreign-policy advisers to the GOP presidential nominee.
Moreover, one of Suu Kyi's strongest supporters has been Senator Mitch
McConnell, Republican-Kentucky, who has pushed to tighten, not loosen, the
sanctions against Burma.
So as Suu Kyi and the military junta continue their stand-off in Burma, the
question in Washington is what will happen to American policy there if the
Republicans take the White House.
Will Big Oil win out and gain an end to US sanctions in Burma? Or will the
Republicans support Suu Kyi in 2001 as they did the Philippines' Cory Aquino in
1986?
In short, what kind of foreign policy would we get in a new Republican
administration? Maybe the candidates can tell us.
The Nation - Sep 3,
2000.
NLD again hits junta with legal action BY KHIN MAUNG WIN When the Burmese junta forbade opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her
supporters from travelling outside Rangoon to meet fellow party members, a new
stage of confrontation between the ruling generals and "the lady" was set. This
time around, the stand-off will have a legal twist to it. But whatever the
outcome, the final analysis will once again show the hypocrisy that underlines
the military's rule.
Two months ago, Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) filed a
formal complaint to the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) based
on Section 80 of the Civil Procedure Code. The code stipulates steps needed to
take a civil lawsuit against a government agency and Section 80 states that a
civil lawsuit against a state agency can be filed two months after a formal
complaint is submitted.
The NLD also sent another notification to the chairman of the Election
Commission and SPDC chairman General Than Shwe. The letters demanded they
prohibit their subordinates from all actions that illegally deter the activities
of a legally registered political party, namely the NLD. A stop was also sought
to harassment, intimidation and trying to force elected representatives to
resign.
Two months has since elapsed and it is just a matter of time before the NLD
files a formal lawsuit under the existing civil laws. Although the NLD has been
tight-lipped as to when they will file the suit, there are, nevertheless, at
least two existing laws which the party can use as the basis for their case,
according to NLD members. One is the Specific Relief Act and the other is the
Contract Act.
The Specific Relief Act enables a court to issue a decree directing a
government agency to perform its duty. In this case, the burden is on the NLD to
show that it is capable and has the manpower to perform its duties as a
legitimate political party. The fact that it won a landslide victory in the May
1990 general election is testimony that the party has what it takes, as well as
the legitimacy, to represent the people of Burma.
In the notifications, the NLD pointed out the SPDC's delay in convening the
first session of the People's Assembly, known in Burma as the Pyithu Hluttaw.
The SPDC was also reminded that it has yet to transfer power to the people as
they had promised. Indeed, the NLD considers this a complete derogation of the
rights of the people who cast their ballots.
Under the Specific Relief Act, the NLD in its lawsuit can request the court
to issue a decree directing the SPDC and the Election Commission to fulfil their
duty of convening an assembly session.
The Contract Act, on the other hand, allows a plaintiff to sue another
party for breach of contract between them. The NLD notifications repeatedly
mentioned the facts that clearly constitute contractual agreements between the
SPDC and the Election Commission on the one hand, and the NLD, the elected MPs
and the people on the other. The Election Law, under which the 1990 elections
were conducted, is in this regard a text of contract between the said parties.
Furthermore, the verbal public promises of power transfer by Burmese military
generals are also evidence of a contractual agreement.
In a lawsuit last year, the league claimed the military junta had illegally
harassed and intimidated its members, but the Supreme Court dismissed the
charges on the ground that there was no evidence to support the claim.
The Supreme Court also said the NLD did not follow all necessary procedure,
as stated in the Criminal Procedure Code, when it tried to sue the government.
Unlike previous lawsuits, which were based on criminal grounds, this time around
the NLD seems to have carefully observed the provisions in the existing laws.
Apart from following necessary procedure, the NLD also has strong legal
grounds to go ahead with legal warfare. However, no matter how right the lawsuit
is, there is no guarantee the process will proceed to a prosecution of the
regime as it would in a society where the rule of law prevails. This is because
the SPDC, which is itself illegal, can easily interfere with the judicial
process at any time it pleases.
There have been numerous incidences and experiences that demonstrate the
junta's desire to destroy Burma's legal system if that is what it takes to
suppress legitimate opposition movements. Therefore, the success of the league's
latest legal efforts very much depend on the reaction and support of other
concerned players, both inside and outside Burma.
In Burma, the democracy movement has taken up several options, including
street demonstrations, election ballots, non-violent political defiance, as well
as armed struggle. However the junta is still in power and it has effectively
suppressed any attempt to restore democracy.
The West's policy of sanctions against the junta has been criticised by key
East Asian regional powers as fruitless. At the same time, Asean's "constructive
engagement" policy has also failed to change the nature of the regime. A recent
confidential report by the Australian ambassador to Burma is a testimony that
the international community feels the regime will never give up or introduce
political and human-rights reforms.
Giving the lack of options, the international community is being pressured
by democracy-loving people to come up with new ways to deal with the junta.
Indeed, the past has shown that whatever approaches the world uses against the
junta, they have not produced fruitful results.
This is why the regime still survives and will continue to remain as an
obstacle to democratisation in Burma. The time has come for all concerned
domestic and international players to show united support for the NLD's legal
initiatives.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
KHIN MAUNG Win is an executive committee member of the exiled Burma
Lawyers' Council.
BBC -Saturday, 2 September, 2000,
12:44 GMT 13:44 UK
Burmese military raid opposition HQ The ruling military authorities in Burma have raided the headquarters of
the pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi - just hours after forcing her to
return to her home in the capital, Rangoon.
Diplomatic sources say military intelligence officers seized a large number of documents belonging to her opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD). UK Foreign Secretary Robin Cook responded to the developments by calling on
the Burmese authorities to lift all the restrictions imposed on the NLD and
voicing "deep concern" about the crackdown.
Diplomats in Rangoon told the French news agency AFP that at least three
senior NLD members had been placed under house arrest.
Isolation
The security forces have prevented diplomats from reaching Ms Suu Kyi's
house. The Nobel Peace laureate has not been seen in public since the end of her
nine-day stand-off with the military on the outskirts of the capital.
Mr Cook said the UK and its EU and other international partners were
considering what measures to take "in response, once the facts have been
clarified".
"I call on the Burmese regime to allow immediate access to Aung San Suu Kyi
and her NLD colleagues, and to lift all restrictions forthwith," he said.
"Initial indications are that the Burmese regime has once again grossly
infringed the rights of a legal political party to operate freely."
The NLD won elections in May 1990, but Burma's military rulers refused to
hand over power, jailing some party members and placing others under house
arrest.
Conflicting stories
NLD officials said riot police ended the confrontation late on Friday by
forcing Ms Suu Kyi and her colleagues into separate cars.
The military authorities said she had been escorted back to the capital
because of concerns about her health and safety and because of monsoon rains.
A government statement said Ms Suu Kyi and the rest of her party had been
escorted in a motorcade "facilitated by the government for their safe and
convenient return".
"They arrived home fit and sound this morning [on Saturday]," the statement
said.
Ms Suu Kyi had been locked inside her car for nine days after security
services prevented her and 14 members of her party from travelling to a
political meeting in the countryside.
The stand-off prompted widespread international condemnation of the
restrictions placed by the military authorities on Aung San Suu Kyi's freedom of
movement.
The European Union, United Nations and United States were among those to
expressed concern.
Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of the late Burmese nationalist leader,
General Aung San, was held under house arrest for six years after the NLD's
election victory.
Although this was lifted in 1995, the military government has maintained
restrictions on her movements.
The authorities described her protest as a deliberate confrontation
designed to attract world attention.
A government website said Ms Suu Kyi belonged to Western powers "morally
and literally".
BBC -Saturday, 2 September, 2000, 14:45 GMT 15:45 UK
Analysis: Frustration of Burmese military By South East Asia Correspondent Simon Ingram Frustration and embarrassment appear to be the overriding emotions that led
the ruling military authorities in Burma to force an end to the roadside protest
by pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her companions.
From the moment the stand-off on a dirt track outside Rangoon began, the
regime sought to belittle the actions of the leader of the National League for
Democracy through its propaganda.
It pointed to the undisputed fact that there was no visible evidence of
public support for Ms Suu Kyi, whose party won elections in May 1990 but was
prevented from taking office.
But what the military could not stop was the growing volume of
international censure of the restrictions it was placing on Ms Suu Kyi's freedom
of movement.
Government pressure
As the days passed, it became clear that Ms Suu Kyi - an increasingly
marginalised figure in recent months - was successfully using the same form of
protest she employed two years ago to boost her profile abroad and to highlight
her long battle to bring Burma to democracy.
Not for the first time, the regime's patience snapped.
It remains unclear how far the government plans to go in punishing the NLD.
Reports of the seizure of documents from the party's Rangoon headquarters
could presage an attempt to substantiate the regime's accusation that the NLD is
a stooge of western governments.
Hardliners within the military would dearly love to crush the opposition
once and for all; indeed that process has been underway for some time at a local
level, where lower-level members of the NLD have been put under enormous
pressure to resign their membership.
The Straits Times - Sep 2,
2000.
Travel ban on Suu Kyi: US slams Yangon WASHINGTON -- The United States has injected new venom into its campaign
against Myanmar's junta, as Vice-President Al Gore and Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright castigated Yangon's generals over their treatment of
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
As her roadside standoff with security forces moved into a second week, Mr
Gore and Mrs Albright praised her and accused the government of violating basic
human rights norms.
""I am appalled at the actions of the Burmese regime in denying Aung San
Suu Kyi the freedom to travel within her own country,'' Mrs Albright said in her
first public statement since Aug 24, when Ms Suu Kyi and supporters defied a ban
on travelling outside the capital.
Mr Gore, meanwhile, in a statement, criticised the junta for denying Ms Suu
Kyi the freedom to travel out of Yangon, calling it ""an offence to free people
everywhere''.
International outrage over the stand-off mounted over the week, with UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the European Union, Britain, Canada and France
hitting out at Myanmar's treatment of Ms Suu Kyi and reminded the government
that it would be held accountable for her welfare. --AFP, Reuters
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