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NCGUB Opposed Convention(05/29/92)



                           The Reuter Library Report

                         May  29, 1992, Friday, BC cycle



 BURMESE OPPOSITION LEADER SCORNS NATIONAL CONVENTION

BYLINE: By Cynthia Osterman

AMSTERDAM, May 29

 BODY:
   The leader of Burma's opposition on Friday derided plans by the ruling
military junta to organise a national convention on a new constitution and said 
the opposition would not participate.

   ''I am sure it cannot be a real constitution or convention where the people's
desires and will could be shown,'' said  Sein Win,  premier of the National
Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, in an interview. 
   ''With all the current repressive laws and human rights abuses, we cannot go 
and sit in the convention.''

   The junta said on Thursday it was organising a national convention to draw up
Burma's first constitution since a military takeover nearly four years ago.

   It said it would invite 15 members of parliament from the opposition National
League for Democracy (NLD) to attend a meeting on the convention on June 23.

   The NLD, the main opposition party, won a landslide victory in elections two 
years ago. But the military retained power and arrested most of its leaders,
including 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.

   Many NLD members of the parliament-elect fled to the Thai-Burma border where 
they formed a rival government headed by  Sein Win,  49, a former university
mathematics professor.

   He said the only NLD members likely to be invited to the conference were
those still in Rangoon.

   ''Inside Rangoon the NLD is a party which can not function. It is paralysed
by this regime...and has no freedom to speak,'' he said. ''The NLD (outside
The Reuter Library Report, May 29, 1992                     
                                                                                
Rangoon) will not give it the mandate.''

   After naming a new leader last month, the junta released some political
prisoners and pledged moves which might lead to an eventual transition from
military rule.

   But Sein Winn, who is attending a weekend conference in the Netherlands, said
the opposition doubted its sincerity. ''Up to now we don't see any evidence of
real change,'' he said.

   He called on the junta to free Aung San Suu Kyi and negotiate with her. He
also appealed to the international community to impose trade sanctions and an
arms embargo to put pressure on the military leadership. LEVEL 1 - 296 OF
419 STORIES                          

                            Copyright 1992 Reuters  
                           The Reuter Library Report

                         May  29, 1992, Friday, BC cycle

LENGTH: 32 words

DATELINE: AMSTERDAM

 BODY:
    Sein Win,  leader of Burma's opposition, derided plans by the ruling
military junta to organise a national convention on a new constitution and said 
the opposition would not participate.
LEVEL 1 - 297 OF 419 STORIES                          

                     Copyright 1992 Agence France Presse  
                              Agence France Presse

                                  May  28, 1992

SECTION: News

LENGTH: 294 words

HEADLINE: Burmese opposition appeals to United Nations

DATELINE: PARIS

 BODY:
    Burmese opposition leaders have appealed to U.N.  Secretary General Boutros 
Boutros-Ghali and other world leaders for help in ending repression by the
Rangoon military junta and gaining the release of Nobel Prize laureat Aung San
Suu Kyi.

    The opposition figures, who included elected politicians prevented from
taking office by the military and leaders of the country's rebellious ethnic
minorities, appealed in a letter for a meeting of the U.N. Security Council
on

the situation in Burma. A copy of the appeal was made available here.

    The letter called for "strong and decisive action" against Rangoon unless it
halts military attacks on opposition-held territory, releases opposition leader 
Aung San Suu Kyi and other political detainees and permits democracy.

    Those signing the letter included  Sein Win,  head of the National Coalition
Government Union of Burma, Saw Bo Mya, chairman of the Democratic Alliance of
Burma and the minority Karen National Union, Nai Shwe Kyin, chairman of the
National Democratic Front, and Tin Maung Thet of the All Burma Moslem Union.

    They accused the military regime in Rangoon of large-scale human rights
abuses and warned that its refusal to accept the results of 1990 elections which
were won by the opposition and its continuing efforts to defeat ethnic rebels
militarily were endangering regional peace.

    The politicians also said the fate of thousands of Burmese Moslems who have 
fled to Bangladesh to escape alleged abuse by the Burmese military needed
"urgent international attention."

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
8888**********************
LEVEL 1 - 299 OF 419 STORIES                          

                     Copyright 1992 Agence France Presse  
                              Agence France Presse

                                 April  29, 1992

SECTION: News

LENGTH: 507 words

HEADLINE: Burma's parallel government to hold emergency meeting

DATELINE: BANGKOK

 BODY:
    Burma's pro-democracy parallel government is to hold an emergency meeting
following the junta's decision to halt the war against Karen rebels and free
political prisoners.

    The meeting, to be held next month in the Karen headquarters in Manerplaw
which until Tuesday's ceasefire had been under heavy attack from Burmese troops,
was announced on Wednesday by the parallel government's foreign minister Peter
Lim Bin. Agence France Presse, April 29, 1992                      
                                                                                
    The meeting will be attended by the groups 11-man executive committee
including prime minister  Sein Win,  said Lim Bin.

    "We will be discussing the recent changes announced by the junta following
last week's removal of General Saw Maung," the foreign minister told AFP in a
telephone interview.

    But he said he did not believe that the junta, which has come under
increasing international pressure for human rights violations since it seized
power in 1988, had any intention of relinquishing power.

    "The regime is just trying to bluff the international community. They will
continue to hold power for at least five years and then perhaps hand over power 
to a puppet government," Lim Bin said.

    And he ruled out any possibility of talks between the junta and the parallel
government in the near future.

    "First of all they have to hand over power to the elected representatives of
the people, reinstate the MPs they disqualified after the 1990 elections and
free the 2,000 political prisoners still being held," he said. Agence France
Presse, April 29, 1992                      
                                                                                
    "The international pressure must be kept up on the regime and a proper lobby
the international community," he added.

    The parallel government was set up in 1990 in Manerplaw after leading
opposition MPs from the National League for Democracy, which swept the
elections, were forced to flee for their lives as the Rangoon regime began a
series of mass arrests of opponents.

    In Rangoon on Tuesday, the junta, through the state-run Working People's
Daily newspaper, made its first official comment in an editorial following the
announcement of a limited amnesty of political prisoners and a time frame for
the creation of a new constitution and an eventual handover of power.

    The editorial said the recent changes were a practical demonstration of the 
regimes "goodwill" and the "correctness of its policy".

    "Based on prevailing conditions in the country the State Law and Order
Restoration Council (the junta's official title) is taking what it considered
necessary steps in the interest of the people," said the paper.