BurmaNet News August 23, 1996

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-----------------------------BurmaNet--------------------------------
"Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
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The BurmaNet News: August 23, 1996
Issue #497

Noted in Passing:
		ASEAN follows a strategy of trade, investment and 
		dialogue to encourage its generals to ease their civil 
		crackdown. We do not agree that this policy will bring a 
		change with this military regime - Sein Win (see: AP: 
		EXILED DEMOCRACY LEADER SAYS 'ENGAGEMENT' 
		FAILED)
HEADLINES:
==========
AP: 19 BURMESE ACTIVISTS ARRESTED
VOA: BURMA SENTENCINGS
URGENT ACTION ALERT: SLORC SENTENCES 11 NLD ORGANIZERS
ABSDF: CHINESE TROOPS MOVEMENT IN KHUN SA'S AREA
ABSDF: SLORC'S HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES IN KYAUT KYI 
ABSDF: EIGHT KILLED IN TAVOY-MERGUI PLANE CRASH
US EMBASSY RANGOON: FOREIGN ECONOMIC TRENDS - BURMA
UPI: RAMOS: ASEAN WAY THE RIGHT WAY
AP: BURMA SOLDIERS TO TAKE PART IN INFRASTRUCTURE 
AP: EXILED DEMOCRACY LEADER SAYS 'ENGAGEMENT' FAILED
RADIO MYANMAR: REVIEW OF SLORC VISIT TO MALAYSIA
THE STAR: MALAYSIA SAYS ASEAN POLICY ON BURMA PAYS OFF
THE STAR: CONSTRUCTIVE ENGAGEMENT CAN LIFT MYANMAR
BKK POST: SEARCHES HELD IN SHAN COMMUNITIES
JANE'S INTELLIGENCE REVIEW: CORRESPONDENCE - BURMA
MYANMAR ALIN: VOICE OF THE PEOPLE OF SHWEBO
KYEMON: PREVALENCE OF LAW AND ORDER...
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AP: 19 BURMESE ACTIVISTS ARRESTED
August 22, 1996
        
RANGOON, Burma (AP) - The military regime has arrested 19 people
accused of plotting with pro-democracy advocates in India to
destabilize Burma, state-run media reported Thursday.
 
Two of those arrested are members of pro-democracy leader Aung
San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, the New Light of
Myanmar newspaper said.

The newspaper said the India-based expatriate wing of Suu Kyi's
party was planning to train Burmese activists in "political
defiance" and establish a dissident cell in Monywa, 400 miles
northwest of Rangoon.
        
Those arrested were involved in the plot, the newspaper said, and
also distributed leaflets intended to undermine government economic
development programs and plans to draft a new constitution. Burma,
also known as Myanmar, is one of Asia's poorest countries.
        
It was unclear when the arrests of Doe Htaung and Khun Myint Tun
were made.
        
The arrests were announced a week after Suu Kyi's personal
secretary, Win Htein, was sentenced to seven years in prison in a
separate case.
        
A statement Thursday from the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok,
Thailand, said Win Htein conspired with four others to gather
misleading information, including a videotape, in order to "trick"
the UN Human Rights Commission into believing that forced labor
was being used in the countryside. The five were convicted on Aug. 15.
        
The U.S. government, the UN's International Labor Organization,
and a number of human rights groups have accused the government of
using forced labor on a vast scale for infrastructure projects.
        
In the past, the government has not made details of political trials public