NCGUB calls on ASEAN to press SLORC

[FreeBurma@xxxxxxx]

By Christopher Follett 

COPENHAGEN, July 31 (Reuter) - Dissident Burmese politicians  meeting in
Denmark called on Thursday for the Association of South East Asian Nations
(ASEAN) to use its influence to bring about political change in Burma. 

"Now that they have accepted Burma as a member, ASEAN leaders must exercise
their responsibility to secure political change there," Dr Sein Win, leader
of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, the dissident
exile government, said at a news conference. 

"We are optimistic -- we believe Burma will become a democratic country in
the near future," he said. 

"The situation inside Burma is getting worse, not better, both politically
and economically. The military in Rangoon is not having any success in
developing the country, they cannot hold on for long now," Sein Win said. 

The exiled Burmese government held a secret six-day meeting outside
Copenhagen, hosted in part by the Danish government. 

Most of the nine politicians or "ministers" attending the session were
members of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party of Burmese
opposition leader and Nobel Peace laureate Aung  San Suu Kyi. 

The NLD won a landslide victory in a 1990 election in Burma but the result
was never recognised by the military and since then the human rights
situation has deteriorated in the country with Aung San Suu Kyi under virtual
house arrest. 

Burma was accepted as a full member of the Association of South East Asian
Nations (ASEAN) at a meeting of the group in Malaysia last week. 

Its induction into the group came despite protests from many  Western nations
which said acceptance would be tantamount to approval of the widespread human
rights abuses of Burma's ruling  State Law and Order Restoration Council
(SLORC) and its clampdown on the democracy movement. 

ASEAN insists that its policy of "constructive engagement" is the best way to
reform Burma from within the family fold. 

In a declaration, the exiled politicians also called upon ASEAN to closely
monitor the situation in Burma and the plight of refugees in border areas and
initiate a dialogue with the NLD, ethnic leaders inside Burma and the exile
government. 

Sein Win urged more nations to impose investment sanctions on the Rangoon
military regime for its human rights abuses. 

"U.S. investment sanctions are already in action and we would like other
friendly countries to impose similar sanctions.  The United States made the
first step, we would like to see the European Union take action," he said. 

"The Burmese people are pleased. Such boycotts are helping the democratic
cause," he said. 

Denmark is a leading EU campaigner for sanctions against Burma's military
rulers in the wake of the mysterious death in a  Rangoon jail in June 1996 of
James Leander Nichols, honorary consul for Denmark, Finland, Norway and
Switzerland. 

A Copenhagen pressure group - the Danish Burma Committee - has staged
extensive consumer boycott campaigns against major Danish companies operating
in Burma. 

At their meeting in Copenhagen, the exile government signed a committee
protest against six Danish firms still operating there. 

Last July Danish brewer Carlsberg and its Dutch competitor Heineken both
announced that they were ending business dealings in Burma as a result of
activist pressure. 

10:05 07-31-97