Focus-Top UN Official on Myanmar De

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Subject: Focus-Top UN Official on Myanmar Democracy Mission 

               Asia:Myanmar

               Focus-Top UN Official on
               Myanmar Democracy Mission

               Reuters
               27-OCT-98

               YANGON, Oct 27 (Reuters) - A top United Nations emissary met
leaders of
               Myanmar's military government on Tuesday at the start of a
four-day mission
               aimed at nudging the ruling generals towards democracy. 

               U.N. Assistant Secretary-General Alvaro de Soto held
separate meetings with
               Foreign Minister Ohn Gyaw and Brigadier General David Abel,
minister to the
               office of the head of the ruling military council General
Than Shwe. 

               "It's part of the process of consultation between the United
Nations and
               Myanmar," de Soto told Reuters by telephone after arriving
in the Yangon. 

               He would not specifically confirm that he had also met
opposition leader Aung
               San Suu Kyi but said: "What you can assume is that since I
have done so every
               time in the past there is no reason for this to be an
exception." 

               De Soto said details of his "good offices" mission, were
"essentially confidential
               until some elements of it are made public in the Secretary
General's report to the
               General Assembly sometime next week." 

               The U.N. emissary was expected to meet Lieutenant General
Khin Nyunt, the
               powerful head of military intelligence and a top member of
the military council,
               on Wednesday morning. 

               Myanmar and the U.N. have kept up a war of words in recent
months over
               human rights, in particular the treatment of Nobel Peace
Prize winner Suu Kyi's
               National League for Democracy (NLD). 

               U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson called
this month
               for the freeing of Myanmar's political prisoners and urged
the government to halt
               "repression" of the opposition. 

               She said she had received "no satisfactory response" on the
issue of human rights
               when she raised the matter with Ohn Gyaw in New York in
September. 

               On Tuesday, the government announced it had freed 34 more of
the hundreds of
               members of the NLD the party says have been detained in
recent months. 

               It said they were allowed to return home on Monday and
Tuesday "after a
               successful exchange of views on maintaining and safeguarding
national peace and
               stability." 

               The government rounded up a large number of NLD members
after the party
               vowed in late August to call a parliament. 

               The NLD said on Monday that 987 of its members were in
detention. The
               government has announced the release of 99 in recent days. 

               De Soto met government leaders and Suu Kyi during his last
visit in January. But
               in August, Myanmar refused the U.N. Secretary General's
request to send his
               emissary. 

               Ohn Gyaw said last month the world had no right to interfere
in Myanmar's
               internal affairs when the government had "chosen the path of
democracy." 

               De Soto first visited Myanmar in 1995, two months after Suu
Kyi was released
               from six years house arrest. 

               Human rights groups outside Myanmar say its generals have
made no progress
               towards democracy since they refused to recognise the
results of a general
               election in May 1990, which was won overwhelmingly by the NLD. 

               They accuse Yangon of massive human rights abuses, including
the use of forced
               labour, arbitrary detentions and summary executions. Yangon
denies the
               charges. 

                            Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited.All rights
reserved. 





                                                   

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