Burma's Suu Kyi Tells Investors "Do

[FreeBurma@xxxxxxx]

Subject: Burma's Suu Kyi Tells Investors "Don't Rush"

Attn : Burma Newsreaders
Re: Burma's Suu Kyi Tells Investors "Don't Rush"
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      By Deborah Charles 

    RANGOON, July 12 (Reuter) - Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on
Wednesday urged foreign businessmen queuing up to invest in her resource-rich
country to study the situation carefully before deciding whether the time was
right. 

    ``Of course, in the long run I think we would need international
investment but I don't think we should rush into this,'' she told the British
Broadcasting Corporation in an interview. 

    ``It is the word rush I object to. I think you've got to study the
situation much more carefully,'' she said. 

    Burma's military government on Monday revoked an order which has confined
the 50-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner to the compound of her Rangoon home
for the past six years. 

    Her release has been welcomed cautiously around the world by political
leaders and the business community, many members of which, particularly in
neighbouring southeast Asian countries, see attractive profits in
long-isolated Burma's resources and its fledgling tourist industry. 

    ``I want to study the situation much more carefully before I say whether
I truly believed that this is the right time for investments in Burma,'' Suu
Kyi said. 

    Exiled Burmese dissidents around the world have been lobbying for years
against investment in Burma, arguing that it would only bolster the position
of the military government. 

    Total foreign investment in Burma was $2.752 billion as of March this
year, and was expected to increase to $4 billion by the end of 1995, Burma's
Minister for National Planning and Economic Development, David Abel, said
last month. 

    Most foreign investment in Burma is in oil and gas, hotels and tourism,
fisheries, mining and forestry. The biggest investors include Britain,
France, the United States, Singapore and Thailand. 

    Suu Kyi,  daughter of Burma's revered independence hero General Aung San
also appealed on Wednesday to her supporters to be patient but asssured them
that democracy was on its way. 

    Standing on a chair behind her front gate and speaking through a
megaphone, Suu Kyi thanked about 200 supporters waiting outside, saying she
was grateful for their support and encouragement.  

REUTER 
Reut 10:53 07-12-95
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Burma Opposition Pessimistic Despite Release

      BANGKOK, July 12 (Reuter) - An opposition alliance fighting to end
decades of military rule in Burma welcomed the release of dissident Aung San
Suu Kyi but said on Wednesday her freedom was no guarantee of democracy. 

    ``Despite that fact that Aung San Suu Kyi has been released, democracy
has not yet been achieved,'' the National Council of the Union of Burma
(NCUB) said in a statement received by Reuters. 

    The alliance of ethnic minority guerrillas seeking autonomy and exiled
pro-democracy supporters of Suu Kyi, said international pressure and fears of
internal unrest finally led to the decision to release the opposition leader.


    ``Her release is a mere lifting of the restriction imposed on her against
communication with the outside ... her release does not guarantee the right
track towards achieving democratisation,'' it said 

    Burma's ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) on Monday
revoked an order which has restricted Suu Kyi, 50, to her Rangoon home since
July 20, 1989. 

    The statement said the SLORC had a ``long history of broken promises''
and its ``upcoming activities will have to watched with caution.'' 

    ``SLORC needs to revoke its unjust laws and recognise the basic rights of
all citizens. Only then will she be able to exercise her rights as a citizen
and work freely for the advancement of democracy,'' the NCUB said. 

    Burma's military has ruled in one guise or another since the ousting of
its last democratic government in a 1962 coup. 

    The SLORC was set up in September, 1988, as troops finally succeeded in
crushing a democracy uprising which swept the country that year. 

Reut04:58 07-12-95
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