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The Nation, Feb. 18, 1997 UN Offic



Subject: The Nation, Feb. 18, 1997  UN Official Planning to Hold Talks  with Suu Kyi

by SA-NGUAN KHUMRUNGROJ, YINDEE LERTCHAROENCHOK

	A SENIOR representative of United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan is
on a brief official visit to Burma, the first trip by a UN delegation since
the latter half of last year.
	Informed sources in Thailand and the United States confirmed that Francesc
Vendrell, director of the Political Affairs Department, will stay in Rangoon
until tomorrow.
	He is on a tour of Southeast Asia and will next visit Cambodia and Laos.
	During his stay in Rangoon, Vendrell will meet leaders and officials of the
governing Burmese State Law and Order Restoration Council (Slorc) and is
expected to hold talks with opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate
Aung San Suu Kyi and other pro-democracy leaders.
	The Burmese military rulers' earlier refusal to allow UN representatives
into the country was because of their concern that the UN officials would
also meet Suu Kyi, the strongest critic of the Burmese regime who has been
calling for tougher international measures and sanctions against the ruling
junta.
	Vendrell and his superior, Alvaro de Soto, assistant secretary-general for
political affairs, have visited Burma over the past few years on behalf of
the UN secretary-general.
	The UN chief was mandated by a UN resolution on Burma to help find a means
to improve the political and human rights situation in the country.
	The Burmese junta also rejected repeated requests by the new UN human
rights envoy to Burma, Rajsoomer Lallah, to visit the country.
	Lallah, an Oxford-educated judge from Mauritius, replaced Japanese
professor Yozo Yokota, who resigned from the post in May last year in
protest over having to constantly fight for funds to carry out his work.
	Slorc said it does not recognise Lallah's appointment as the regime was not
consulted on Yokota's replacement.
	In his capacity as human rights envoy, Yokota conducted annual visits to
Burma, usually at the end of the year, when he met Slorc officials and Suu
Kyi and her political colleagues from the National League for Democracy. He
also visited prisons and interviewed prison inmates, political detainees,
ex-prisoners and political activists.
	He also travelled to Burmese refugee camps along Thailand's border with
Burma to inquire about the human rights situation there before submitting an
interim report of his findings to the UN General Assembly in New York and a
full dossier to the plenary session of the Geneva-based UN Human Rights
Commission, which begins its annual meeting in February or March.
	Although he was not allowed to visit Burma late last year, Lallah still
submitted an interim report to the UN General Assembly in which he harshly
criticised the legal framework in Burma, saying that various existing laws,
by themselves, violate international norms in the field of civil and
political rights.
	He also criticised the Slorc's failure to implement its commitment towards
the establishment of democracy in the light of the general election in May 1990.
	Sources said De Soto and Vendrell had earlier refused to travel to Burma
unless they were allowed to organise their own itineraries.
	The fact that Vendrell is visiting Burma at the moment means that he must
have been allowed a degree of independence in his trip, the sources added.
	The sources said they could not confirm whether Vendrell would also visit
Thailand for meetings with Thai government officials and exiled Burmese and
ethnic dissidents, which he has been known to do when passing through the
Kingdom.
	His trip to Burma coincides with the current Burmese army's major military
operation against the Karen National Union after the armed group continually
rejected Burmese demands to surrender.
	The offensive, which began early last week, has driven tens of thousands of
refugees into Thailand.
	The Burmese offensive, which is still going on, took place shortly after
intrusions and violent raids against three Karen refugee camps in Thailand
by both Burmese and renegade Karen troops.
	


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