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Australia:warning on toucher policy



Subject: Australia:warning on toucher policy for Burma.



		Australia: Warning on toucher policy for Burma
		**********************************************

	The Federal Government will consider toughening its policy 
	towards Burma if the country's military junta continues a crackdown on 
	supporters of the pro-democracy leader Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, government 
	sources said last night.

	Amid growing fears that Ms Suu Kyi may be re-arrested ahead of a 
	conference of her party on Sunday, the Governor-General, Sir William 
	Deane, last night announced the Nobel Peace Prize winner had been 
	appointed as a Companion in the Order of Australia. The award is rarely 
	bestowed on non-Australians.

	The Foreign Minister, Mr Downer, said it was "in recognition of 
	her outstanding leadership and great personal courage in the struggle 
	to bring democracy to Burma". He said Ms Suu Kyi was a "remarkable 
	woman and an international symbol of the Burmese people's desire for 
	democrcy".

	Ms Suu Kyi last night warmly welcomed the government's decision 
	to make the award.

	"It's a great honor and I deeply appreciate it," she told 
	journalists at her home in Rangoon.

	Ms Suu Kyi rejected suggestions that the award might hinder her 
	effort to win a return to democracy in Burma.

	"It is always a help to gain international recognition because it 
	is not a personal recognition but a recognition of the work we are 
	doing 
	as movement of democracy."

	She said she was determined to push ahead with plans for a 
	conference of party leaders on Sunday, despite the arrest of a almost 
	200 of her supporters.

	"We are a party working for democracy and we've got to carry on 
	our work."

	Burma's military rulers freed Ms Suu Kyi last July after six 
	years of house arrest.

	[By LINDSAY MURDOCH, Canberra, and Mark Baker, Rangoon, 24 May 96].

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