BKK Post, Mar: 23. BURMA / ASEAN RE

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BURMA / ASEAN RELATIONS
Junta detains lawyers, monks

Security crackdown sees hundreds jailed

Agence France-Presse

Burma's military authorities have arrested 50 lawyers as will as Buddhist monks and student leaders in the latest crackdown on political opposition, source in Chiang Mai said yesterday.
   The Democratic Party for a New Society (DPNS), an exiled Burmese opposition group, said five monks were among hundreds recently arrested  by military intelligence squads.
   "the state Peace and Development Council (SPDC) still continues its attempts to 
crack down on the activities of opposition members and pro-democracy activists in Burma by mass arrests," a DPNS statement said.
   Those arrested include members of the all Burma Federation of Students Union, the chief librarian at Yangon University and a well-known writer, it said.
   Earlier this month the ruling SPDC said it had arrested 40 people on charges ranging from conspiracy to bomb public buildings to "subversives" such as spreading rumours against it.
   Source in Rangoon said security force had heightened their presence in the capital before Armed Forces Day on Friday.
   The statement came as senior officials of the Association of Southeast Asian Nation(Asean) decided against Burma attending the forth-coming Asia-Europe meeting in London.
   Asean, with Thailand taking the lead, had earlier pressed for its inclusion despite European opposition.
    But Philippines Foreign Under-secretary Lauro Baja, chairing a meeting of senior Asean officers outside Manila, said the moratorium on new participants in the Asem gathering starting on April 2 would be observed, effectively blocking out Burma.
    "There is a moratorium (on new participants) while the question of membership will  be discussed. There was an agreement that (there will be) no new members of Asem," he said.
     Mr Baja also said they were considering issuing a statement on "the financial situation " in East Asia at Asem.
    The senior officials' meeting, on its second day yesterday, is focused on preparations for meetings with Asean dialogue partners like China, Japan and the United States.
     European nation have shunned official contacts with Burma, citing its poor human rights record and were not expected to allow officials from Rangoon to take part in the Asem meeting.
     Since Burma Joined Asean last year, however, the regional grouping has pushed for its inclusion in all meetings involving Asean members.
     Meanwhile, Britain reportedly hinted earlier it may allow Rangoon to send envoys to informal meetings between the EU and Asean.