Information Sheet N0.A-0571(I)

[OKKAR66129@xxxxxxx]

                               MYANMAR INFORMATION COMMITTEE
                                                  YANGON

                                        Information Sheet
					 
                  N0.A-0571(I)                           21st August 1998 	

22 Members of Armed Groups Exchange Arms for Peace

		Twenty-two members of various armed groups exchanged arms for peace at the
respective Tatmadaw camps from 1 to 18 July. They are from the Kayin National
Union and All Burma Student Democratic Front, armed terrorist groups.
Officials warmly welcomed them at the respective camps and are providing
required assistance. 

                       OFFICE CALL IN YANGON ON 20 JULY

		Minister for Education U Than Aung received Executive Director of Fukuoka-
Myanmar Friendship Association Mr Hishiro Mihara at his office. They discussed
aim for constructing school and the size of the school.

                                           Special Feature
  
                           Basic Universal Human Rights in Myanmar

		It is distressful that the Myanmar Government finds it difficult to
understand the U.S. Government?s attitude and statement in response to the
release of the (6) U.S. activists. ? While we are pleased that these American
citizens will be returning to United States, we think this out to serve as a
reminder that there is an absence of protection of basic human rights in
Burma?.

			Bearing in mind that the American activists were working under the auspices
of the U.S.-based Free Burma Coalition whose avowed aim is to 
overthrow the Government of Myanmar. If the roles were reversed, and a number
of foreign citizens were caught handing out leaflets in Washington D.C.  in an
attempt to destabilize the U.S. Government, particularly in the light of
recent outrages in East Africa, we wonder how the U.S. Government will deal
with such foreign citizens. More importantly for a country like Myanmar which
has achieved national reconciliation with its different national races
fighting against the previous 
successive governments, the Myanmar Government has as most developing 
countries in the East been prioritizing community rights at this stage of her 
development rather than giving priority to individual rights like the
developed 
countries  at present going through. One of Myanmar?s top priorities in her
basic human rights is to provide her citizens with security. Myanmar believes
that her citizens must enjoy the essential basic rights such as security and
safety of their lives and properties, a decent job which will help put enough
food on the table for their families and also a decent place for them to live
in. 

			The Myanmar Government and her people do admire the rights the 
American citizens enjoy and one day when her basic requirements are fulfilled
Myanmar might emulate some of the rights the American people are enjoying. But
at this moment the Myanmar Government as well as the people of Myanmar are
quietly  concerned that in the United States the basic universal human rights
such as security and protection of citizens, properties and lives have been
overshadowed and sidetracked by other individual rights. Myanmar and many
other countries in the world are shocked by the increasing violence in the U.
S. and last March?s schoolyard shooting at Arkansas by (2) boys and last
month?s unfortunate incident of the murder of the two police officers at the
Capitol Hill are  a few of the shocking examples of the absence of basic human
rights in the United States, not Myanmar as has been accused by the U. S.
Government.


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