Annan Talks To Suu Kyi's Husband

[RANGOONP@xxxxxxx]

Annan talks to Suu Kyi's husband in Myanmar dispute

By Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS, July 31 (Reuters) - Secretary-General Kofi Annan spoke by
telephone on Friday to the husband of Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu
Kyi, whose recent dispute with the country's military drew protests from U.S.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and others. 

U.N. officials said the call was part of Annan's efforts, which include an
offer to send a special envoy to Myanmar, to keep informed about the country,
where the military government has ignored results of 1990 elections won by Suu
Kyi's National League for Democracy. 

"We can confirm that the secretary-general had a phone conversation with Dr.
Michael Aris," the British husband of Suu Kyi, U.N. spokesman Juan-Carlos
Brandt said. 

Aris, an Oxford University academic, is currently in New York while Annan is
on a retreat in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for the weekend with World Bank
President James Wolfensohn.  

This week, in a move that drew sharp international criticism, security
officers forced Suu Kyi to end a six-day, sit-in protest in a car outside the
capital, Yangon after she and three associates last Friday were prevented from
traveling to a meeting with her supporters. 

The government said she had been stopped on the road in Anyarsu because it was
concerned for her security. Officials also said the meeting she planned to
attend was aimed at fomenting dissent before the planned reopening next month
of universities and other institutions closed in December 1996 because of
student unrest. 

Albright said in Sydney that she and Australian Foreign Minister Alexander
Downer had asked Annan "to become personally involved" in persuading the
country's military government to open a dialogue with Suu Kyi. 

She said Annan had agreed to "take a very careful look" at the proposal and
talk with the two ministers again shortly. "We think increasing international
pressure ... and our pushing for a dialogue is a way to proceed." 

The U.N. officials said Annan was in touch with Albright and Downer and also
had received messages from people close to Suu Kyi, other than her husband,
and responded to them. No details were given. 

Annan earlier this week announced he would send Alvaro De Soto, the assistant
secretary-general for political affairs, to Myanmar if the government would
set a date. U.N. officials said there had been no response from Yangon. 

De Soto has made several trips to Myanmar on a mandate from the General
Assembly as well as the secretary-general, but made little progress with the
government, which has been shunned by the West for almost a decade. 

But U.N. officials do not expect Annan to visit the country. The military has
so far failed to respond to appeals to move toward democracy by the U.N.
General Assembly or in negotiations with senior U.N. officials. 

Annan has made few public comments on the current controversy in Myanmar,
saying only that he shared the concern of U.N. High Commissioner for Human
Rights Mary Robinson, who called on the government to let Suu Kyi travel
freely. 

Suu Kyi's party won a landslide victory in a 1990 election but was never
allowed to take power. The military had seized power in 1988 after crushing
demonstrations. It also changed the country's name to Myanmar from Burma  

Suu Kyi, the daughter of Burmese independence leader Aung San, was put under
six years of house arrest and released in July 1995 after winning the 1993
Nobel Peace Prize for her nonviolent campaign for democracy. 

20:06 07-31-98