Millennium appeal for Burma

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Friday, 31 December, 1999, 16:19 GMT
Millennium appeal for Burma

Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has appealed for Asian nations, led by 
Japan, to press for democracy in Burma in the new millennium.
The Burmese opposition leader said her greatest hope for 2000 was for people 
to live at last "free from fear" after 37 years of military rule.

"People wake up in the morning wondering which of their friends have been 
taken into detention by the authorities,'' she said in a videotaped New Year 
message smuggled out of the country.
''They wake up in the morning wondering what the future of their children 
will be and worrying about it.
"I think for me ... the great hope for the millennium [is] that we must be 
free from want and fear, not just the people of Burma, but people all over 
the world."
Plea to Japan
Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won a landslide victory in 
the 1990 general elections, but the military refused to hand over power.
In her millennium message to be delivered at a New Year's eve rally in Hong 
Kong, she called for greater support from Asian nations.
And she urged Japan "to take a strong stand in the battle for democracy" in 
Burma.
"As the richest Asian country and as a democracy, Japan has a duty to try to 
promote human rights and democracy in other parts of Asia," Ms Suu Kyi said.
"We hope that 2000 will see a blossoming of Japanese interest."
Japan, once a major donor to Burma, recently offered much-needed aid to the 
military regime if it made political and economic reforms.
But the military has remained adamant it will not make political concessions 
in return for foreign assistance.
Sanctions
A series of high level meetings between the two countries has raised 
concerns among democracy activists that Tokyo may be breaking ranks from 
international efforts to pressure the generals towards democracy.
Burma is subject to US sanctions because of its human rights record, while 
the European Union bars visits by senior government officials.
Hundreds of members of Ms Suu Kyi's party have been imprisoned and thousands 
pressured to resign from the NLD since the 1990 election.
Illegal Burmese arrested
Nation ? 1 Jan 2000
KANCHANABURI -- Police yesterday arrested around 1,000 illegal Burmese 
immigrants who were on their way to a religious ceremony hosted by the 
controversial Dhammakaya Temple.
Around 2 pm police intercepted 37 crowded buses carrying about 3,000 monks, 
novices and laymen heading for the temple in Pathum Thani, where a religious 
ceremony to welcome the new millenium was to be held last night.
Dhammakaya Temple had invited 150 temples in Kanchanaburi to participate in 
the ceremony and expected to attract some 20,000 people from that province 
alone, an informed source said.
However, the source added that the ceremony had not attracted much attention 
from Kanchanaburi residents, so that illegal immigrants and Burmese living 
in restricted areas in the province had been approached. They were each 
offered Bt200 to travel to the temple on the chartered buses.
The convoy, led by a senior monk in Kanchanaburi, were intercepted on the 
Thong Pha Phum-Kanchanaburi road in Sai Yoke district.
More than 100 officers from a joint police and military task force searched 
the buses.
It was discovered that some 1,000 of the passengers were either illegal 
Burmese immigrants or Burmese allowed to live in restricted areas in 
Sangkhla Buri and Thong Pha Phum districts.
The Nation

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