Burma News Update No. 71

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Open Society Institute
Burma Project

Burma News Update No. 71
1 December 1998



NEW PRESSURE ON NLD
   
National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said
her party would defy a new army campaign against it and persist in
demands for the convening of the parliament elected in 1990 polls. A
Burmese junta spokesman said on Sunday that 1257 NLD members have
recently resigned from the democratic opposition party, and ten party
branches have been dissolved. The junta describes the actions as
voluntary, but Daw Suu Kyi said the NLD rejected "resignation under
coercion because it is illegal." A junta colonel warned on 23 November
that hundreds of NLD members detained over the past months could be
released quickly only if the NLD drops its demands that the parliament
be allowed to meet. The junta has never honored the 1990 election
results in which the NLD won 396 of 485 parliamentary seats. The junta
says it is still holding 467 NLD activists arrested since October, while
the NLD says over 700 remain in custody. [Many other political prisoners
are also serving longer sentences in Burma's prisons, and the total
may exceed 2,000, according to human rights groups-Ed.]

Rangoon, Agence France Presse, Reuters, 23 November



UN RIGHTS ENVOY REJECTED
   
Burma's military junta has again refused entry to the United Nations
human rights investigator for Burma, claiming the investigation is needed,
according to a UN spokesman. UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in
Burma, former Mauritius Chief Justice Rajsoomer Lallah, this month issued
a report to the UN General Assembly detailing allegations of
extrajudicial and arbitrary executions, rape, torture, mass arrests,
forced labor and other rights violations in Burma. Meanwhile, U.N. High
Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson said she has received "no
satisfactory response" from the junta regarding human rights issues she
raised with the Burmese foreign minister in October. A UN resolution
adopted on 19 November condemning ongoing human rights abuses in Burma
has been rejected by the junta.

Geneva, Reuters, 24 November


DRUG CORRUPTION, IMPUNITY
   
American cooperation with Burma on narcotics matters is today
impossible because of corruption and a culture of impunity for major
drug figures inside Burma, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary Of State For
International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Jonathan Winer said in
Bangkok on 19 November. Winer said that reputed drug lords, including
Khun Sa, who is under indictment for heroin trafficking in the United
States, and Lo Hsing-han, are living freely in Burma. Both men are
believed to be residing under military protection in Burma's capital,
Rangoon. Winer added that past U.S. efforts to assist anti-drug programs
in Burma have failed and that the Burmese junta are not "reliable
partners."

Bangkok, Reuters, 19 November


SANCTIONS SUSPENSION APPEALED
  
New legislation to restrict public investment in companies doing
business in Burma may be introduced in Massachusetts as an alternative
to the state selective purchasing law suspended by a federal judge on 19
November. A Massachusetts appeal asking for the law's reinstatement may
eventually reach the Supreme Court, legal scholars say. Similar laws
enacted against apartheid South Africa in the 1980s helped bring
pressure for reform on that country's white minority regime. 
Boston, Journal of Commerce (New York), 23 November 1998


JUNTA RESHUFFLE
   
A leadership reshuffle within Burma's army junta has fortified the
position of military intelligence chief Lt. General Khin Nyunt and could
mark the start of a new international public relations offensive by the
military regime under a new foreign minister. General Khin Nyunt now
controls most of the junta's important working committees and has placed
allies in key positions. Lt. General Tin Hla, a leaders of the bloody
repression of pro-democracy demonstrations in 1988, was named a deputy
premier. General Khin Nyunt also heads a 16-member political committee
formed in November, which some analysts believe may form the core
leadership of a new military-controlled political party.

Rangoon, Deutsche Presse-Agentur, 20 November


NEW BANKNOTE ISSUED

Burma will issue a new 1,000 kyat banknote as the country faces serious 
inflation and an official exchange rate that is less than three percent of
the 
open market rate.

Rangoon, Reuters, 18 November