Burma could face investment sanctio

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Subject: Burma could face investment sanctions: Albright

Burma could face investment sanctions: Albright

           (hold for release expected around 2345 GMT)

           ANNAPOLIS, Maryland, April 15 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Madeleine
           Albright on Tuesday put the Burmese leadership "on notice,"
saying the regime
           could face US investment sanctions.

           Taking note of Rangoon's tightening limits on political
expression and its jailing
           of demonstrators, Albright said, "Burmese leaders are on notice
that, unless the
           clouds of repression are lifted, they will face investment
sanctions under US
           law."

           A US law adopted late last year bans US investment in Burma if
Burma's
           military rulers, known as the State Law and Order Restoration Council
           (SLORC), arrests, harms or exiles Burmese opposition leader Aung
San Suu
           Kyi or suppresses her followers on a large scale. The SLORC has
ruled Burma
           since 1988.

           "Our policy is to oppose repression and support a dialogue
between the
           government and the democratic opposition," Albright said in a
speech at the US
           Naval Academy here.

           "US officials, myself included, have stressed to Burma's military
the opportunity
           presented by a democratic opening," she added, characterizing
recent actions
           by the regime as having a "corrosive effect on the Burmese
government's
           standing at home and abroad."

           On Monday, Aung San Suu Kyi said hundreds of supporters and
members of
           her National League for Democracy (NLD) were in prison, where
they receive
           inadequate medical treatment and are denied basic rights.

           After years of near dormancy, the NLD began stepping up
activities following
           Aung San Suu Kyi's release from six years of house arrest in
1995, but has
           found itself under increasing pressure from the ruling junta.