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U.S. trying to put Myanmar on Secur



U.S. trying to put Myanmar on Security Council agenda

EDITH M. LEDERER

AP, United Nations, 26 September 2000. For the second day
in a row Tuesday, the United States raised Myanmar's
confinement of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi
and tried to put it on the agenda of the U.N. Security Council.

The United States wants the U.N. Secretariat to brief the council
on the military junta's crackdown on Suu Kyi, top leaders of her
opposition National League for Democracy, and between 80 and 100
members of her support network.

But Russia, China and Malaysia are reluctant to raise the issue
on grounds that it involves internal domestic politics, or that it
doesn't constitute a threat to peace and security, Western
diplomats  said.   U.S. deputy ambassador Nancy Soderberg
said Tuesday that Washington will continue to consult
with council members ''to try to work out a way forward,'' and
will keep raising Myanmar's actions in the council.

Suu Kyi and eight other central executive committee
members of her party have been under virtual house arrest
since Sept. 22 in the latest crackdown on the pro-democracy
movement in Myanmar.   ''We strongly condemn these actions
by the government in Burma and call once again on them to lift
the restrictions against Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters,''
Soderberg said.

''They are violating the most basic of human rights -- freedom of
access in your own country -- and we hope that they will lift these
restrictions and enter into dialogue with her,'' Soderberg said.

On Aug. 24, Suu Kyi and 14 party colleagues were blocked by
security forces outside Yangon as they were traveling to a party
meeting in the countryside. They refused to return home and
camped beside their vehicles for nine days, until the police took
them back to the capital and confined them to their residences.

A government announcement on Sept. 14 that restrictions on
  Suu Kyi and her followers were being lifted was welcomed by
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and U.S. Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright.

But after the latest crackdown, Soderberg said, ''We appear to be
back at square one.''

Suu Kyi led a pro-democracy uprising against the military in 1988
and was put under house arrest a year later. Her National League
for  Democracy won general elections in 1990, but was prevented
from taking power.

Hundreds of its members have since been jailed, and the military
has rejected calls for a political dialogue with the opposition.
Suu Kyi was let out of house arrest in 1995, but her movements
remain severely restricted.