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Dr Kyaw Win Interview &NLD (HQ) Ann
- Subject: Dr Kyaw Win Interview &NLD (HQ) Ann
- From: mandalay@xxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 27 Sep 1999 08:30:00
Subject: Dr Kyaw Win Interview &NLD (HQ) Anniversary NEWS 27-9-99
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<font size=2>Friday, September 24, 1999 Published at 06:49 GMT 07:49
UK</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3> <br>
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</font><font size=5><b>World: Asia-Pacific<br>
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Burma: 'Give democracy
time'</b><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3> <br>
<br>
</font><font size=4>Tim Sebastian interviews ambassador Dr Kyaw
Win</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3> <br>
<br>
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</font>Burma will not be ready for democracy until its people understand
how to use it, the Burmese ambassador to the UK has told the BBC. <br>
Speaking on BBC World's HARDtalk, Burma's ambassador in the UK Dr Kyaw
Win said people needed to be educated and the country stabilised before
multi-party politics could develop. <br>
<br>
"You think once they are free to do anything they want, they
understand what democracy is all about?" he said. "Democracy is
a very delicate flower, it doesn't grow easily anywhere and is not easily
transplantable." he said. <br>
Dr Win was on the programme to defend his country's human rights record.
Burma, or Myanmar - the name chosen by the military regime -, has come
into the spotlight this month with the imprisonment of two young British
protestors who publicly declared support for the country's democracy
movement. <br>
A Foreign Office report in London has accused the government in Rangoon
of presiding over a system of summary executions, torture, rape and
detention without trial. <br>
But Dr Win dismissed this report and a United Nations report that has
also condemned Burma's human rights record, as a simple cultural
difference between east and west. He accused "certain western-based
organisations" of having vested interests. <br>
"The UN is controlled by a few countries that are more powerful than
the rest," he said. "There is a geographical divide in the
understanding of this problem. <br>
<b>Jailed Britons</b> <br>
Earlier this month Rachel Goldwyn, 28, was jailed for seven years for
chaining herself to a lamppost in Rangoon and singing pro-democracy
songs, while 26-year-old James Mawdsley was jailed for 17 years for
distributing anti-government leaflets. <br>
<table border=0>
<tr><td width=158></td></tr>
<tr><td width=158><font size=2>Rachel Goldwyn 'could be freed on
appeal'</font></td></tr>
</table>
<font size=3>Dr Win described Mr Mawdsley as "a chronic, recurrent
violator". In the case of Rachel Goldwyn he said there was every
chance she could be released after an appeals process, but he stood by
Burma's legal system. <br>
"It wasn't singing," he told HARDtalk's Tim Sebastian.
"She came in, she shackled herself to a fence and this was part of a
big scenario they were trying to create on 9-9-99. Everybody knows.
<br>
"The laws are laws. In the face of laws the opinions of individuals
do not count. It is the laws that count." <br>
"This girl is going to get a proper appeals process and her parents
will be going there and making appeals with the lawyers. It's is a
judicial process, this is not a political process. You people are
politicising it." <br>
"They were not just there to hand out leaflets and sing songs. They
wanted to cause this particular uprising and they wanted to lend their
support to it." <br>
The government that Dr Win represents came to power in 1988 as a
transitional government before democracy was to be set up. <br>
In 1990 elections, Burma's main opposition party, the National League for
Democracy, won 82% of the vote. But the country's military leaders
ignored the results and the NLD leader Aung Sun Suu Kyi spent almost six
years under house arrest. <br>
But Dr Win said basic rights to food had to come before democracy could
be put in place <br>
"We in developing countries, first of all have to have the basic
rights to sufficiency of food, shelter and other basic needs as a
priority, he said. <br>
"Political rights will come when the time is right."<br>
<br>
<br>
</font><font size=2>Monday, September 27, 1999 Published at 10:07 GMT
11:07 UK</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3> <br>
<br>
</font><font size=5><b>Burmese authorities block opposition
HQ</font></b><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3> <br>
</font>The authorities in Burma have blocked roads leading to the
headquarters of the opposition National League for Democracy as the party
prepares to mark its eleventh anniversary. <br>
Witnesses said riot police had set up a blockade to divert traffic and
limit attendance at a low-key ceremony to mark the anniversary. <br>
It's the third time in less than a month that the authorities have tried
to restrict access to the party's headquarters. The National League for
Democracy won a landslide victory in general elections in 1990, but the
military has never allowed it to take power. <br>
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