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Reuters-EU suggests fact finding mi



Subject: Reuters-EU suggests fact finding mission to Mynamar 

EU suggests fact finding mission to Mynamar
08:27 a.m. Jun 30, 1999 Eastern
BANGKOK, June 30 (Reuters) - The European Union has proposed sending a
mission to Myanmar before next month's ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting to
look for ways to encourage dialogue between the ruling military and
opposition, a European diplomat said on Wednesday.

The diplomat, who did not want to be identified, said the EU had informed
members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) of the
proposal, but there had been no response from Yangon.

He said the proposal was for a visit by a EU fact-finding ``troika,'' which
would comprise a representative of the EU's common foreign policy position,
the EU presidency and of the European Commission.

Myanmar's human rights record, in particular its treatment of the
pro-democracy opposition led by Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, has
disrupted EU-ASEAN relations since Yangon joined the 10-member ASEAN in
1997.

The EU bars entry to senior officials from Myanmar and says it will stick to
this position unless there is a ``significant'' improvement in Myanmar's
rights situation. The ban forced cancellation of an ASEAN-EU foreign
ministers' meeting earlier this year.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won Myanmar's last election in 1990
by a landslide, but the military ignored the result and has decimated the
party through a long campaign of arrests and intimidation.

The military and opposition blame each other for a lack of dialogue.

In a report published on Wednesday, the London-based human rights group
Amnesty International said the rights situation in Myanmar had worsened
since it joined ASEAN.

It called on the regional bloc to put pressure on Yangon at the ministerial
meeting to be held in Singapore in late July.