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U.N. Official Concerned About Burma



Tuesday May 27 8:50 AM EDT 

U.N. Official Concerned About Burma

GENEVA (Reuter) - The top U.N. officer for human rights expressed deep
concern Tuesday
over Burma's reported detention and arrest of opposition party members. 

Ralph Zacklin, interim U.N. high commissioner for Human Rights, called on
the military junta
government to "respect fully international norms of human rights and
principles." 

The Briton, who took over from Jose Ayala-Lasso who resigned last March to
become Ecuador's
Foreign Minister, was especially concerned that the rights of democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi
were being "limited," according to a U.N. statement in Geneva. 

On Tuesday, Burma's military junta limited a large gathering of the National
League for
Democracy party (NLD) planned at the home of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize
laureate to mark the
seventh anniversary of its unrecognized victory in the 1990 election. 

Using armed riot police, the ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council
(SLORC) cut off
access to Suu Kyi's lakeside home and other possible locations for the
planned NLD meeting. 

In Rangoon, an NLD source said SLORC had detained up to 316 party members
nationwide
since last week, including about 50 members of parliament, to thwart the
special gathering. 

In a statement, Zacklin said he had invited in Burma's ambassador to the
United Nations in
Geneva "to discuss these and other human rights issues." 

But Rangoon's record of cooperation with the world body on human rights
issues is mixed at best,
according to diplomats and U.N. sources. It has not allowed the U.N. special
rapporteur
(investigator) for human rights in Burma to visit since 1995. 

Burma's ambassador Aye had been scheduled to see Zacklin later in the day,
but the meeting was
put back until Thursday, according to U.N. sources. "There will be the
opportunity we were
seeking to have information from him about what is happening on the
government side," one said. 

The U.N. statement said: "The officer-in-charge of the U.N. High
Commissioner/Center for
Human Rights, Mr. Ralph Zacklin, is deeply concerned by reports of
detentions and arrest of
NLD members taking place in Rangoon in the last few days. 

"Mr. Zacklin is particularly concerned that internationally recognized
rights of Ms. Aung San Suu
Kyi are being limited. 

"Mr. Zacklin calls on the Government of Myanmar (Burma) to respect fully
international norms of
human rights and the principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights," the
statement added. 

The declaration, adopted by the General Assembly in 1948, proclaims for men
and women
everywhere the right to life, liberty and security; freedom from slavery and
from arbitrary arrests
and detention; and rights including a fair trial. 

The U.N. Commission for Human Rights last month voiced concern about
continuing violations by
Burma's military rulers. 

In a consensus resolution, the 53-member body cited abuses including
extrajudicial, summary and
arbitrary executions, deaths in custody, torture, arbitrary arrests and
child labour. 

It extended by one year the mandate of the special U.N. human rights
investigator for Burma,
Mauritian lawyer Rajsmoor Lallah, and urged Rangoon to cooperate with him. 

Lallah, in his report to the Commission in March, accused Burma of arbitrary
killings and torture.
He said the country's "autocratic" power structure denied fundamental civil
and political rights.
Many political leaders were being held. 

His Japanese predecessor in the U.N. rights post for Burma, Yozo Yakota,
managed to make
four trips between 1992 and 1995. 

Alvaro de Soto, assistant U.N. secretary-general for political affairs, was
in Rangoon this month
and urged officials to allow Lallah to enter, according to U.N. sources. 

Lallah and the U.N. working group on arbitrary detention were sending
"urgent action appeals" to
Burma, they added.