EBO Burma News, 4 June 2003
News Summary:
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1. Opposition leader
slams Aung San Suu Kyi arrest, government silence
2. Suu Kyi 'was hurt during clash'
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Opposition leader slams Aung San Suu Kyi arrest, government silence
protested
the detention of Aung San Suu Kyi in
Chee
Soon Juan released a statement that his Singapore Democratic Party
"registers its protest against the arrest
and continuing detention" of the
Nobel laureate who leads opposition to the
ruling junta in
He also urged the
arrest
of Aung San Suu Kyi at the weekend during a tour of a northern region.
The government's "silence on the matter is not only deafening but
also
unhealthy
for the future of ASEAN," he said, referring to the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations.
"The continued violence and repression against democracy forces in
(
but
also for her neighbours," Chee said, using the
country's former name
outlawed
by the junta.
ASEAN has a policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of its
members,
a stance which has come under fire from analysts and western nations
as
a "see no evil, hear no evil" approach.
---------------------------
Suu Kyi 'was hurt during clash'
BBC World News
during
a violent clash between her supporters and pro-government demonstrators
last
week.
The BBC's
cuts
to the face and shoulder when the window of her car was shattered by a brick
before
she was taken into "protective custody" by the junta at the weekend.
Deputy Foreign Minister Khin Maung Win assured diplomats on Tuesday that
Aung San Suu Kyi had not been injured and was in good health.
Our correspondent says that she is now being held at a military camp
just
outside
Diplomats and UN officials have been repeatedly denied access to her.
The military government said that four people were killed in the clashes
on
Friday in the north of the country, in which Aung San Suu Kyi was
injured.
But eyewitnesses estimated that more than 60 people died in the incident
and,
according
to our correspondent, diplomats in the capital now fear for the safety
of
these sources, as the government tries to cover up the incident.
Our correspondent says that BBC News Online has been blocked inside
among
the government's measures to stop news of the incident spreading.
The military authorities have rounded up hundreds of people in the area
and
many
more are in hiding.
Foreign human rights advocates have said they suspect the clash was
provoked
by
the authorities to justify a crackdown.
"The government needs to stop persecuting its critics and start
serious talks
about
making the transition to a rights-respecting member of the international
community,"
said Brad Adams of the New York-based Human Rights Watch.
But in closed-door briefings to foreign diplomats on Tuesday, Khin Maung
Win
blamed
supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi for the violence, Reuters news agency
reported.
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