World Notices Myanmar's Crisis

[RANGOONP@xxxxxxx]

World Notices Myanmar's Crisis

By GRANT PECK
 .c The Associated Press 

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- Protests by foreign activists and renewed challenges
to military rule by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi have brought Myanmar's
political deadlock back to the world's attention, but there's no sign
democracy is on the country's agenda. 

Although Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won a landslide victory in a
1990 general election, the military never allowed the winning lawmakers to
take their seats. Instead, it jailed dozens of them on political charges and
sent others fleeing into exile. 

Four times in the past two months, authorities have blocked Suu Kyi's way as
she has tried to travel to the countryside to meet her would-be members of
parliament. 

She has responded by refusing to turn back or leave her car. On Sunday, she
was parked on a small bridge 19 miles west of Yangon in the fifth day of her
latest such sit-in. 

Her party meanwhile has made the quixotic demand that the parliament be seated
by Aug. 21. 

But the generals who have ruled the country since suppressing mass pro-
democracy demonstrations 10 years ago have shown time and again they will not
be pushed around by anyone, be it Suu Kyi, Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright or the United Nations. 

Last week, they rejected a request from U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan that
his special representative be immediately allowed to visit Myanmar, also
called Burma, saying there was no reason to rush. 

Albright, among others, had sought Annan's intervention in the crisis over the
government's treatment of Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize. 

Myanmar's neighbors in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations -- who
previously maintained a no-criticism policy, particularly since Yangon joined
the group last year -- recently have added their voices to those urging the
generals to ease their rule. 

Activists from four ASEAN countries -- Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia and
Indonesia -- were among the 18 foreigners who handed out pro-democracy
leaflets in the streets of Yangon last week. They were arrested and given
five-year prison sentences which were suspended when they were expelled
Saturday. 

``ASEAN or the West can say what they like, but Burma is still an isolated
country, and in the short term I don't think outside criticism makes a great
deal of difference,'' said Martin Smith, a London-based author of several
studies on Myanmar interviewed Saturday. 

Thanet Apornsuwan, a political scientist at Bangkok's Thammasat University,
believes however that the release of the 18 activists ``has shown that Myanmar
could not bear the growing pressure from outside, especially from neighboring
countries in ASEAN region.'' 

Smith said the latest confrontations reminded people there is a longstanding
crisis to be resolved. 

Only a three-way dialogue -- between the government, Suu Kyi's democracy
movement, and the ethnic minorities who have uneasily been part of the Burmese
state since independence in 1948 -- can break the deadlock, he said. 

``All three groups say they are committed to change,'' he said. ``Aung San Suu
Kyi's protest brings everything back into focus.'' 

Suu Kyi responded to critics of her confrontational tactics in an interview
earlier this month with the British Broadcasting Corporation. 

``We've tried various strategies and we will keep on trying new strategies,
but we do want a peaceful solution,'' she said. ``So a peaceful resolution
means a negotiated resolution.'' 

AP-NY-08-17-98 0521EDT