EBO Burma News, 8 May 2003
News Summary:
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1. Crowds flock to see
2.
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Crowds flock to see
expected
to be her longest political trip since her release from house arrest
last
year, her party spokesman said.
The leader of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD)
departed
release
by
The trip is being viewed as a test of whether the regime will attempt
any
disruption.
The NLD and Suu Kyi have complained increasingly of government
harassment
during the leader's travels, particularly of the thousands who
flock
to see her.
She travelled Thursday to northern Shwebo from
stronghold
that she was blocked from visiting in September 2000, prior to her
arrest,
NLD spokesman U Lwin told AFP.
"On her way she met many people in many villages. In some villages
she had
to
stop because those people wanted to offer her a lot of flowers. She has to
go
slowly," he said.
In Shwebo, "there were many people, many
motor cars, motorcycles, and they
put
their lights on, their battery horns on, even though the people in those
villages
and Shwebo were warned by the authorities not to form
a big crowd to
receive
her," he said.
People were warned earlier in the week not to see her, but U Lwin said no
fresh
reports of harassment -- which Suu Kyi complained about last month --
had
been received since then.
The Nobel peace laureate aims to meet with party supporters,
reopen NLD
offices
shut by the junta and assess conditions in the military-ruled state,
activities
she has also carried out during seven other trips she has made in
the
past year.
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By Alison Maitland in
Financial Times
The Burma Campaign
of
exaggerating the wages it paid factory workers in its joint venture with
the
military regime and misleading the all-party parliamentary group on
The human rights pressure group, which wants BAT to pull out of
obtained
figures from the group's Asia Pacific office showing average monthly
wages
for lowest paid workers were 28,000 kyat, well below the official
BAT figure of nearly 53,000 kyat.
It said the official figure included overtime of 30,000 kyat, but the
regional office
had
told the campaign that overtime had been curtailed because of the economic
situation.
Vera Baird MP, chair of the all-party parliamentary group on
been
told by Kenneth Clarke, BAT deputy chairman, in December that wages were
well
above average. "If that's wrong, they seem to have no justification for
staying
in
BAT on Wednesday stood by its official figure and refused to discuss the
breakdown
in
detail, saying the Burma Campaign's aim was to close the operation down and
make
workers redundant, not improve wages. It acknowledged economic difficulties
in
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