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Bangkok Post News (29/10/98)



UN ENVOY TALKS WITH GENERALS
29.10.98/BANGKOK POST
RANGOON, REUTERS

DE SOTO ALSO HINTS OF MEETING SUU KYI

A top United Nations emissary met  leaders of Burma's military
government on Tuesday at the start of a four-day mission aimed at
nudging the ruling generals towards democracy.

UN 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 [Burma]," Mr de Soto said after arriving in
the Rangoon.

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."

Mr 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 UN emissary was expected to meet Lieutenant General Khin
Nyunt, the powerful head of military intelligence and a top
member of the military council, yesterday morning.

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

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson called this
month for the freeing of Burma'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 Tues-day
"after a successful exchange of views on maintaining and safe-
guarding 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.

Mr de Soto met government leaders and Suu Kyi during his last
visit in January. But in August, Burma refused the UN Secretary
General's request to send his emissary.

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

Mr de Soto first visited Burma in 1995, two months after Suu Kyi
was released from six years house arrest.

Human rights groups outside Burma say its generals have made no
process 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 Rangoon of massive human rights abuses, including the
use of forced labour, arbitrary detentions and summary
executions. Rangoon denies the charges.

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MASSIVE DRUGS BUST
29.10.98/BANGKOK POST
AP

Burmese authorities seized nearly three million amphetamine
tablets near the city of Lashio in northeastern Shan  State, a
government press release said yesterday. The 2.89 million pills
were confiscated during a car search at a checkpoint and two men
were arrested by a team of local police, military intelligence
and customs officials acting on a tip. Burma has become a major
source of amphetamines, most of which are trafficked into
Thailand.

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