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The BurmaNet News: August 27, 1998



------------------------ BurmaNet ------------------------
 "Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
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The BurmaNet News: August 27, 1998
Issue #1083

HEADLINES:
==========
REUTERS: MYANMAR RULERS CLOSE OFF MOST SACRED SHRINE 
AFP: CLASSES TO RESUME AT YANGON TECHNOLOGY SCHOOL 
REUTERS: THAI POLICE HOLD 16 TO END EMBASSY PROTEST 
U.S. DEPT. OF STATE: PRESS STATEMENT ON DEADLINE 
AFP: ALBRIGHT PRESSURES COUNTERPARTS TO SUPPORT ASSK
BKK POST: EUROPEAN-LED PUSH FOR REFORM BEGINS 
THE GUARDIAN (LETTER): APPLY MAXIMUM PRESSURE 
ANNOUNCEMENT: GREEN NOVEMBER 23 SPECIAL CONFERENCE 
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REUTERS: MYANMAR RULERS CLOSE OFF MOST SACRED SHRINE 
26 August, 1998 by Aung Hla Tun 

YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar's military government blocked off the country's
most sacred Buddhist shrine Wednesday on the 10th anniversary of opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi's maiden speech for democracy, witnesses said.

Security forces closed all entrances to the Shwedagon Pagoda, a magnificent
100-metre golden stupa in the center of Yangon and fenced of the
surrounding area, they said.

Diplomats in the capital said the aim was apparently to prevent attempts to
commemorate the 1988 uprising for democracy, which the country's military
rulers crushed at a cost of several thousand lives, according to most
independent estimates.

Diplomats said the official explanation given for closing the legendary
pagoda was ``special cleaning.'' Security policemen armed with batons were
stationed at each of its four main gates.

On Aug. 26, 1988, some 700,000 people rallied at the Shwedagon to hear a
speech by Suu Kyi, the daughter of Myanmar's assassinated independence hero
Aung San.

Suu Kyi, who had returned to Myanmar to nurse her dying mother and had no
political track record, called the democracy uprising Myanmar's ``second
struggle for independence.'' She went on to become the leader of the
movement and was awarded the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize.

Her National League for Democracy won 1990 general elections by a
landslide, but the military ignored the results. It has since tried to
grind down the opposition through a long campaign of arrests and
intimidation, diplomats and dissidents say.

But in recent weeks the opposition has become increasing assertive and last
week vowed to call a ``People's Parliament'' as the military had ignored
its demand to do so.

On Tuesday, authorities stationed riot police around the capital to guard
against a repeat of protests by university students Monday, the first such
street demonstrations in more than a year.

The protests came the same day as Suu Kyi ended a 13-day roadside protest
against restrictions on her movements.

An NLD source said Suu Kyi was being treated by her doctors and her health
was improving after the exhausting standoff.

Diplomats said the NLD was likely to wait for Suu Kyi's recovery before
proceeding with its pledge to call parliament, something the government has
said would be against the law.

On Tuesday the government, which calls itself the State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC), told foreign military attaches it would not
allow the opposition to form a parliament or enter talks with Suu Kyi, a
diplomat said.

It argued that Suu Kyi, the NLD general secretary, and Tin Oo, the party's
vice chairman, had been officially stripped of their posts in 1990, he said.

The NLD held its first meeting with senior members of the government eight
days ago but said afterwards it was informal and did not constitute a
``dialogue,'' which it said could not take place without Suu Kyi.

The ruling generals have long refused to talk to Suu Kyi, who has been the
biggest thorn in their side since they took power.

State newspapers said Home Affairs Minister Tin Hlaing had warned the NLD
Monday to ``avoid acts which will undermine stability and peace and the
rule of law.'' 

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AFP: CLASSES TO RESUME AT YANGON TECHNOLOGY SCHOOL
26 August, 1998 

YANGON, Aug 26 (AFP) - Myanmar's junta is preparing to reopen one of the
capital's closed universities this week, despite the biggest
anti-government demonstrations since schools were shut here two years ago.

The Yangon Institute of Technology, now renamed the Yangon University of
Technology, is preparing to resume its regular classes for the new academic
year, sources at the university said.

They said classes were scheduled to start on August 28.

One of the hot-beds of student unrest in the past, the campus has begun
accepting enrollments of first, second and third-year engineering students,
the sources said.

"To date some 275 boarding students out of a possible 1,077 have already
settled in," an employee at the registrars office said, adding the
university has places for more than 2,500 undergraduates.

University exams began across Myanmar earlier this month for the first time
since campuses were closed after student unrest in December 1996.

No date has been officially set for the reopening of universities but the
junta has repeatedly said the actions of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi
and other opposition figures were hampering the education system.

Junta officials were unavailable for immediate comment Wednesday.

"It appears the military authorities are confident enough to go on with the
scheduled resumption of classes despite signs of sporadic student unrest,"
one local analyst said.

The Yangon University of Technology, some eight miles (12.8 kilometers)
north of the city center, was late Monday the scene of a protest by diploma
students angry at being locked out.

Details were sketchy, but foreign diplomats said up to 100 students staged
the demonstration at around 7:00 p.m. (1130 GMT) Monday.

The campus, together with others in the capital, was temporarily locked
following a student demonstration earlier in the day at an intersection
some four miles further into town near the main arts and science university
campus.

Witnesses said up to 150 protestors and some 1,000 onlookers, who had been
cheering as the activists chanted anti-junta slogans at Hledan intersection
outside Yangon University, scattered as the riot police advanced on the
demonstration.

Rocks were thrown and riot police were mobilised during the demonstration
later Monday, foreign diplomats said.

They were the first student demonstrations since a much bigger protest
prompted the military authorities to suspend undergraduate university
classes in December 1996.

Political tensions in Yangon have been on the rise in recent weeks with the
pro-democracy opposition saying they will convene a parliament along the
lines of 1990 election results, despite official warnings that such a move
would be illegal.

The opposition spearheaded by the National League for Democracy party led
by Nobel peace prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi won the polls eight years
ago but have been denied power by the military. 

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REUTERS: THAI POLICE HOLD 16 TO END MYANMAR EMBASSY PROTEST 
26 August, 1998 

BANGKOK, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Thai police detained 16 Myanmar dissidents on
Wednesday to end a three-week protest outside the Myanmar embassy in
Bangkok, police said.

The detentions followed complaints from the embassy that the protesters,
who were demonstrating against military rule in Myanmar, were blocking
access to the compound.

``We have already cleared them out,'' a police spokesman said.

In recent days many other protesters were either detained or urged to leave
the scene.

Police said the 16 protesters were being detained at Bangkok's immigration
jail for identification. The spokesman said those considered persons of
concern by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees would be sent
back to a holding centre south of Bangkok.

Those not recognised by the UNHCR could be charged with illegal entry and
deported, he said.

He said about 200 Myanmar students in exile recognised by the UNHCR had
been allowed to live in a holding centre in Rachaburi province, south of
Bangkok since 1995.

Fourteen Myanmar dissidents picked up from the protest site on Monday had
already returned to the centre, he said. 

****************************************************************

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE: PRESS STATEMENT ON THE DEADLINE FOR CONVENING
PARLIAMENT 
21 August, 1998 

U.S. Department of State
Office of the Spokesman
Press Statement 

Press Statement by James B. Foley, Acting Spokesman
August 21, 1998

Burma--August 21 Deadline for Convening the Parliament 

In June of this year, Burma's primary opposition party, the National League
for Democracy (NLD), called on the ruling State Peace and Development
Council (SPDC) to convene the parliament elected in 1990 by today, August
21. We deeply regret the Burmese government's rejection of this historic
opportunity to respond to the NLD's call.

The solution to Burma's political impasse can only be achieved through a
meaningful dialogue between the Burmese government and the representatives
of the Burmese people. We note the informal meeting held on Tuesday, August
18, between General Khin Nyunt, SPDC Secretary One, and Aung Shwe, Chairman
of the NLD. We hope that the government's initiative in inviting Aung Shwe
to this meeting will be a first step leading to a meaningful dialogue. We
support the NLD's long-expressed commitment to reconciliation through
genuine dialogue.

If a genuine dialogue is to succeed it must be without conditions and
include all interested groups -- the government, the NLD, including its
leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and representatives of Burma's ethnic minorities.
We hope it will be accompanied very soon by genuine confidence-building
measures on the government's part, including the release of political
prisoners and detained Members of Parliament.

Such a dialogue would be a means to larger ends: the restoration of
democracy in Burma, an improved standard of living for all Burmese people,
and the resumption of Burma's rightful place in the community of nations.
To that end, the United States remains committed to working in partnership
with all parties of good will in Burma and with others in the international
community.

****************************************************************

AFP: ALBRIGHT PRESSURES ASIAN COUNTERPARTS TO SUPPORT AUNG SAN SUU KYI 
26 August, 1998 

WASHINGTON, Aug 26 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
expressed concerns about Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in
recent telephone conversations with her Asian counterparts, a spokesman
said Wednesday.

Albright telephoned the foreign ministers of Indonesia, Japan, the
Philippines and Thailand over the weekend to discuss the situation in
Myanmar where Aung San Suu Kyi has been barred from traveling outside the
capital.

The opposition leader returned to Yangon after a 14-day standoff outside
the capital with security forces who prevented her from meeting with
supporters.

"She is currently regaining her strength from this ordeal," State
Department deputy spokesman James Foley said.

"It was very taxing on her, and we had some reason to worry about the
deteriorating state of her health," he said.

"Secretary Albright engaged in conversations over the telephone with a
number of her counterparts in Asia over the weekend because of this
concern," he added.

US embassy officials in Yangon plan to pay a visit to the Nobel prize
winner "as soon as her health permits," Foley said.

Armed riot police were deployed at strategic sites around the Myanmar
capital Wednesday as the ruling junta accused "subversive" opposition
forces of undermining national stability.

Wednesday marked the 10th anniversary of Aung San Suu Kyi's maiden
political speech, made at the Shwedagon Pagoda after her selection as a
National League for Democracy candidate.

The NLD won 1990 elections under Nobel prizewinner Aung San Suu Kyi but the
junta has not allowed parliament to convene, saying the election was merely
to choose drafters of a new constitution.

The opposition leader has said she will convene the parliament herself,
despite official warnings that such a move would be illegal.

Albright earlier this moment described the call for convening parliament as
a "moment of truth in our effort to promote dialogue in Burma", also known
as Myanmar.

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THE BANGKOK POST: EUROPEAN-LED PUSH FOR REFORM BEGINS 
26 August, 1998 by Nussara Sawatsawang 

ASEAN 'MUST PUT ITS OWN HOUSE IN ORDER'

An influential European-led pressure group yesterday launched a new push
for democracy in Burma, calling on the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations to use its influence to work for reform.

Helle Degn, chairperson of the International Network of Political Leaders
Promoting Democracy in Burma (PD Burma), said since the nation was now part
of Asean, the organisation should "clear its own house" by pushing for
talks between the Burmese government and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The political stability which would result from reform would attract
European investors to Southeast Asia, Mrs Degn told a seminar "Forum on
Future of Burma: Relation with Regional Communities," organised by PD Burma
and the Institute of Asian Studies at Chulalongkorn University.

The combination of "the regional economic crisis, a lack of law and order
and a lack of respect for fundamental democracy," were greatly harming
Burma and Asean, said Ms Degn, former Danish Minister for Development and
current president of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

"We, in the European Union, are trying to be supportive, to find the way
out of Southeast Asian crisis. We are looking at all markets ... We know
that we have to set the price -- the price is we have to see the stability
in this region," she said.

Initiated in 1996 by Kjell Magne Bondevic, now Norway's prime minister, the
13-member network involves leading politicians, diplomats, and human rights
activists from Australia, Belgium, Britain, Denmark, India, Malaysia,
Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, the Philippines, South Africa, South Korea,
and Sri Lanka.

It aims to promote freedom of expression, democracy and human rights in
Burma, with an active participation from Nordic countries whose honorary
consul to Burma, James Leander Nichol, died in prison in 1996.

PD Burma's main strategy was to lobby policymakers in international
organisations such as the United Nations and the European Union to promote
democracy in Burma, Mrs Degn said.

The seminar was held one day after Mrs Suu Kyi ended her 13-day protest in
a mini-van 25 kilometres from Rangoon.

Mrs Degn supported Mrs Suu Kyi's demand for the convention of members of
parliament elected in 1990, and emphasised the deadlock between the
military regime and Mrs Suu Kyi was a "regional affair and in the long run
also an affair for other regions as well".

During the seminar Mikio Oishi, a Japanese lecturer on international
conflict resolution, said Tokyo's lack of cohesive strategy on democracy
and the country's aid package to Burma was contributing to the continuation
of the ruling junta.

He attributed the failure to bureaucrats running the policy, and a lack of
public awareness of democracy at the national level.

****************************************************************

THE GUARDIAN (LETTER): EUROPE SHOULD APPLY MAXIMUM PRESSURE 
21 August, 1998 by Ann Clwyd 

[Editor's Note: The Guardian is a daily newspaper out of London]

Dear Sir/Madam,

Today sees the deadline given by Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu
Kyi for Burma's ruling military to convene the Parliament elected in 1990.
In that year the people of Burma gave Aung San Suu Kyi's National League
for Democracy (NLD) 82% of the seats -- the results were ignored and a
quarter of her MPs have since been detained, forced to leave office or to
flee the country. Those that remain are exposed to severe harassment and
their movements and activities are heavily restricted.

At a time when democracies around the world should be doing their utmost to
support Burma's embattled democrats, only America has imposed the sanctions
called for by the NLD.  Europe, on the other hand has joined a legal battle
against American state and local sanctions which will delight the regime
and dismay the democratic movement. 21 US states and cities, including New
York and the State of Massachusetts currently refuse to conduct business
with companies (US and non-US) operating in Burma. European companies
active in Burma are losing lucrative contracts as a result.

Aung San Suu Kyi, like Nelson Mandela during Apartheid, is heralded as an
example and inspiration by the very same people who undermine her cause
when their own interests are threatened.

Europe should now be applying all maximum pressure on this brutal regime -
sanctions rather than the usual ticking off.  It should also step up
efforts at diplomatic intervention to promote a meaningful dialogue between
the military, the democrats and Burma's ethnic nationalities.  The
international community must realise that the simple choice for Burma, as
Aung San Suu Kyi has said, is one of 'dialogue or utter devastation'.

Signed:
Ann Clwyd, MP Chair, Parliamentary Human Rights Group 

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ANNOUNCEMENT: GREEN NOVEMBER 32 SPECIAL CONFERENCE 
26 August, 1998 from greennov32@xxxxxxxxxxx

Dear Green November 32 members,

On 28.8.98, Green November 32 special conference will held. If any members
want to participate, please contact to us. We have a lot of difficulties
for this conference, but we trying for our best, as well as we would like
to request our friends, who are staying around the world, please help to
our activities for the future.

We will send further information to you.

Best Regard,
Green November 32. 

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