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CRACKDOWN IN BURMA
Crackdown in Burma
Tuesday, May 27 1997; Page A14
The Washington Post
BURMA'S military regime has launched a new, nationwide
crackdown against the democratic activists -- and
rightful rulers
-- of that southeast Asian nation. About 200 should-be
parliamentarians and their supporters are in jail.
The junta has
sentenced one democrat to 26 years in prison for
possession of a
copying machine. One of the world's worst
governments is
providing "another reason," as the State Department
spokesman
said, "why we don't think that Burma ought to be
treated as a
normal country."
Burma is a lush nation of 45 million people, rich
in natural
resources, which should be a leader in Asia. Decades of
repressive rule have turned it into a laggard
instead. In 1990 the
ruling junta permitted parliamentary elections that
were won --
overwhelmingly -- by a pro-democracy party led by
Aung San
Suu Kyi, even though she was under house arrest at
the time.
Having lost the election, the military rulers --
who go under the
appropriately unappetizing acronym of SLORC, for
State Law
and Order Restoration Council -- refused to cede
power. Aung
San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace laureate and daughter of
Burma's
post-colonial independence leader, has been under
house arrest
or something close to it for most of the time since
then.
The proximate cause of the latest arrests was Aung
San Suu
Kyi's call for her National League for Democracy to
convene
today, the seventh anniversary of those elections.
The SLORC,
apparently determined to prevent even a one-day
peaceful
assembly, is rounding up those who won election to
a legislature
that never convened. The more basic reason for the
arrests is the
regime's refusal even to initiate a dialogue with
Aung San Suu
Kyi, which is her principal political demand.
The crackdown presents a dilemma to Burma's
neighbors in
Southeast Asia, relatively prosperous and
increasingly democratic
nations like the Philippines and Thailand, which
are debating
whether to admit Burma -- also known as Myanmar --
into their
association, ASEAN. Given Burma's political and
economic
instability, and its wretched global reputation,
ASEAN can do
itself no good with such a new member.
Britain's new government said last week that it
would work with
its European Union partners to take new measures
against the
SLORC. President Clinton last week imposed
congressionally
mandated economic sanctions. In meetings in Europe
next week,
and with the G-7 leading industrialized nations
next month, he
should pursue further cooperative ways to pressure
Burma to
respect its own people's wishes.