EBO Burma News, 3 June 2003
News Summary:
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1. ASEAN in dark over arrest of
2.
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ASEAN in dark over arrest of
of Aung San Suu Kyi and other democracy
activists, a top official said Tuesday.
Ong Keng Yong,
secretary-general of the 10-member Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) said they remained
in the dark about what had happened
in
"Internally, we have to talk to our
he was quoted as saying by
Ong said that one should not jump to
conclusions just by reading media reports
about the situation in
Aung San Suu Kyi,
of military authorities as the junta stayed
tight-lipped over its plans to deal
with her and her party.
The Nobel peace laureate was arrested in
northern
and brought back to a military intelligence
guesthouse in the capital Sunday.
Her exact whereabouts and condition were
unknown.
Ong said since
to tell
"We should let the
what is happening. Bear in mind
"You cannot go in and tell your
family member you cannot do this, you cannot
do that," he added.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has
pressed for the immediate release of Aung
San Suu Kyi and other
senior members of her National League for Democracy.
Asked if the ASEAN secretariat would
establish a special body to look into the
developments in
the moment."
"ASEAN has a member called Myamar, and we don't have to be doing all these
things like what other countries are calling
(for) because they are not members
of ASEAN."
Ong said ASEAN preferred to adopt a quiet
approach to bring about national
reconciliation in
The secretariat had been helping UN
special envoy Razali Ismail
"in a quiet way,"
he said but did not elaborate.
Razali said Tuesday he was seeking clarification
over the detention of Aung San
Suu Kyi before going
ahead with a planned trip to the country.
The former Malaysian diplomat was due to
talk to Aung San Suu Kyi and other
national leaders during his June 6-10 visit.
---------------------------------
detention here Tuesday as the military regime
denied reports she had been
injured and ignored mounting international calls
for her immediate release.
Sources close to the regime have said the
Nobel peace laureate is being
held at a military intelligence "guest
house" in
members of the party's leadership committee are
also in detention.
Deputy Foreign Minister Khin Maung Win
told ambassadors at a briefing
Tuesday that the moves against the
opposition, including the closure of some
100 NLD branch offices, were temporary and
for its own safety,
"They emphasised these measures are
temporary in nature but when asked what
temporary means we got no response," a
diplomat who attended the briefing told
AFP.
The minister rejected a report from
head injury in the melee and that up to 70
people had been killed.
"They said she's perfectly fine and
that all the reports about her being
injured are false," the diplomat said.
"But there's no way we could just
accept that she's perfectly fine because we just
don't know."
United Nations special envoy Razali Ismail was due to begin
his tenth
mission to
junta and the opposition, which was foundering
even before the latest events.
But he said in
democracy leader's detention before going ahead
with the trip.
Khin Maung Win indicated the envoy would
probably not be able to see Aung
San Suu Kyi.
"The way they're putting it is that:
'You can certainly come, we're not
going to stop you, but we can't guarantee that
you will be able to meet her',"
said the diplomat who attended the briefing.
In a sign of the increasingly hostile mood
in
belligerently condemned the NLD, describing it as the
public's number-one
enemy and warning it would suffer the
consequences of its actions.
It claimed NLD members had torn down
government billboards in the north, an
action that equalled "a declaration of war
on the mass of people."
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