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SCMP : US envoy visits activist ami



South China Morning Post
Monday  August 3  1998

US envoy visits activist amid clampdown by junta 

AGENCIES in Rangoon and Bangkok 
A senior US diplomat gained access to the home of opposition leader Aung
San Suu Kyi yesterday as the country's junta clamped down ahead of
Saturday's 10th anniversary of bloody street demonstrations.

US charge d'affaires Kent Wiedemann visited the National League for
Democracy (NLD) leader after being turned away by security forces last week
and spoke to her through an intermediary, an embassy source said.

The NLD leader is recovering from a gruelling stand-off with junta
officials last week on a road outside Rangoon which ended with her being
forcibly taken back to the capital.

"She is frail but recovering," the source said after Mr Wiedemann's visit.

Although few details of the discussions emerged, it is understood the NLD
leader asked for more foreign diplomats to visit her for talks on Burma's
political deadlock.

The United Sates, Australian and New Zealand embassies on Friday asked for
United Nations intervention to force the country's military leaders into a
genuine dialogue with its democratically elected government.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan plans to send assistant secretary-general
for political affairs, Alvaro de Soto, to Burma in September or October.

Possibly in response to international criticism, the junta allowed about
100 supporters to visit Aung San Suu Kyi at her home on Saturday.

The Nobel peace laureate was blocked for six days last week on a road
bridge 26km from the capital while trying to get to a meeting with
provincial supporters.

Her food supplies ran out and fears were held for her health when the junta
late on Wednesday forced her from the car and drove her back to the
capital.

Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, who reportedly was suffering from dehydration and a
fever, has demanded the release of jailed supporters and a date for direct
talks with the junta.

The junta kept up its condemnation of her, with the powerful First
Secretary, Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt, accusing her of colluding with
unnamed foreign embassies to incite unrest.

He told a teachers' seminar on Saturday that Ms Aung San Suu Kyi's sit-in
last week was a well-orchestrated opposition attempt to destabilise the
political situation.

The general dismissed the NLD's charge that its leader had been abducted
and that this was a criminal act.