WP and IHT today

[cd@xxxxxxxxxx]

Philip Hood (by way of zni@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (zar ni)) 

dear burma readers friends and activists, this also ran in the iht 
today, editorial page, dawn star, euro-burmanet, paris (ps thanks hood 
for the posting!)
> 
> Burma made the Washington Post editorial (Sept. 11, 1996):
> 
>                 Taking On Burma
>                 ---------------
> 
>         No regime in the world is more deserving of outcast
> status than the military dictators of the Asian nation of
> Burma.  Six years ago, they permitted elections to take place,
> no doubt thinking that a campaign of intimidation had ensured
> their victory.  When anti-junta democratic forces nonetheless
> won four-fifths of parlimentary seats, the regime ignored the
> election results.  Since then it has clung to power through
> a policy of state terror, imprisonment, torture and forced
> labor on a massive scale.
>         Congress has an opportunity now to send a signal of
> support to Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's
> democratic leader, and her supporters.  The Senate passed
> a modest measure of sanctions in July that should be approved
> and, if possible, strengthened in conference.  The bill would
> bar U.S. foreign aid, except for anti-drug programs - an
> exception that should be removed, given the Burmese regime's
> tolerance of narcotraffickers.  It would bar entry visas to
> Burmese officials and instruct the administration to forge
> a multilateral campaign in support of Burmese democracy.  It
> also would ban further U.S. investment in the event of large-
> scale repression.
>         The last provision is troublesome, since the Burmese
> regime has been ruling through large-scale repression from the
> start.  Aung San Suu Kyi is no longer officially under house
> arrest, but the junta still refuses even to open a dialogue
> with the nation's rightful ruler.  Her aides and colleagues
> in the democratic movement are being systematically jailed.
>         Burma's regime, so clearly without popular support
> at home, just as clearly feels vulnerable to foreign pressure.
> States and cities across teh United States, and companies here
> an in Europe, increasingly have been promoting a boycott.
> Most recently, the regime leveled preposterous accusations
> against three Americans, including a staffer of the
> International Republican Institute, who have been promoting
> nonviolent democratic change.  The regime railed against
> "aliens and mercenaries," who it said were "trying to create
> chaos and confusion" while "lining their pockets" with
> donations from "well-endowed but unscrupulous foreign
> organizations of countries such as the USA, Germany and Norway."
>         The United States should make clear such charges,
> against Americans or Burmese, will be rejected.  Congress has
> an opportunity to send the message.
> 
> more later.