UN rights chief steps up criticism

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UN rights chief steps up criticism of Myamar junta

Wed 07 Oct 98 - 15:26 GMT 

GENEVA, Oct 7 (AFP) - UN high commissioner for human rights, Mary Robinson,
Wednesday stepped up criticism of Yangon following the arrest of 54 people,
including 23 opposition party members in Myanmar.

Justa officials said the arrests were made in connection with an alleged
international plot to "incite anarchy" and topple the military government.

"The latest detentions of opposition activitists in Myanmar are very worrying,
indicating that the government contines to ignore basic human rights standards
and the concern of the international community," Robinson said in a statement.

Her rebuke came as Myanmar rejected assertions she made in Geneva Tuesday over
an intensifying wave of repression against Myanmar's political opposition.

In her remarks Tuesday, Robinson had called on authorites in Yangon to release
all political prisoners.

"I reiterate in the strongest possible terms my call to the government of
Myanmar to release all political prisoners and to guarantee its citizens all
fundamental human rights," she said Wednesday.

She again urged the government to undertake a process of reconciliation with
the opposition and to "cooperate fully with the human rights mechanisms of the
United Nations."

A junta spokesman in Myamar told AFP that Robinson's earlier statements were
"at variance with the actual condition."

"We deeply regret that the UN high commissioner for human rights has made
these statements, which do not actually reflect the true situation in
Myanmar," the spokesman said.

Those arrested included 23 members of the National League for Democracy (NLD)
opposition party, led by Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, said Colonel
Thein Swe of the junta's office of strategic studies.

Opposition groups said it was the biggest crackdown on the democracy movement
in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, since the brutal crushing of student
demonstrations in 1988.

They said that 2,000 dissidents had been arrested or detained since May,
including about 200 NLD MPs.

The NLD won 1990 elections in a landslide but the junta has refused to
relinquish power.

©AFP 1998

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