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Malaysian foreign minister met Suu



Malaysian foreign minister met Suu Kyi in Myanmar 
07:43 a.m. Mar 10, 1998 Eastern 
YANGON, March 10 (Reuters) - Malaysian Foreign Minister Abdullah Ahmad
Badawi met with Myanmar's (Burma's) opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on
Tuesday, an opposition source said. 

Suu Kyi and other top leaders of the National League for Democracy (NLD) met
Badawi for about two hours, the NLD source said. 

Earlier in the day, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad looked angry
and refused to answer when asked by a reporter if he had met Suu Kyi during
his two-day visit to Yangon. 

Badawi is the second foreign minister from an ASEAN country to meet with Suu
Kyi. Philippines Foreign Minister Domingo Sizon met the 1991 Nobel Peace
laureate in October during a visit to Yangon. 

The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) officially accepted
Myanmar into its grouping last year, despite protests from many Western
nations that acceptance of Myanmar would be tantamount to approval of its
poor human rights record. 

ASEAN nations follow a policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of
other nations and said acceptance was better than isolation. 

No ASEAN leader has been known to have met with Suu Kyi since she was
released from six years of house arrest in 1995. 

Suu Kyi and her NLD are at a stalemate with the military government. 

The government has said it was willing to hold talks with the NLD but Suu
Kyi has not been invited. The NLD has said it would not attend the talks if
Suu Kyi -- the party's co-founder and secretary general -- was not included. 

The NLD won a landslide victory in a 1990 election but the military never
recognised the results. ^REUTERS@