EBO Burma News, 9 June 2003

News Summary:

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1. UN Envoy to Leave Myanmar Without Seeing Suu Kyi

2. ILO chief calls for release of Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi

3. Rangoon unfazed by threat of sanctions

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UN Envoy to Leave Myanmar Without Seeing Suu Kyi

 

Sun June 8, 2003 12:44 PM ET

 

YANGON, Myanmar (Reuters) - A U.N. envoy visiting Myanmar to secure the release

of Aung Saan Suu Kyi will leave the country Monday without seeing the detained

Nobel peace laureate, a source close to U.N. envoy Razali Ismail said Sunday.

 

"He will go back to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow, cutting short his trip," the source said.

Rizali was expected to leave Myanmar at around noon, he said.

 

International concern has intensified over the health and whereabouts of the

pro-democracy leader since a deadly clash between her supporters and those of

the junta on May 30 as Suu Kyi was touring a provincial town in the north.

 

Earlier Sunday, an aide to the envoy said Razali would on Monday meet ruling

junta chief Senior General Than Shwe, who was out of Yangon but was expected

to be back in time for the planned meeting. It was at that time Razali would find

out whether he would be allowed to see Suu Kyi.

 

But U.N. sources said Razali's orders from U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan

were to meet Suu Kyi and leaders of her opposition National League for Democracy,

and said he would cut short his mission and leave Myanmar if these requests

were denied.


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ILO chief calls for release of Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi

 

GENEVA, June 9 (AFP) - The International Labour Organization (ILO) called

Monday for the release of Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, as UN

special envoy Razali Ismail was in Yangon negotiating with the military junta

there.

 

"I call on the governement of Myanmar to take immediate measures to release

her and other leaders and to guarantee their freedom," said ILO director

general Juan Somavia at the ILO's annual general assembly being held here.

 

"The detention of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has created a climate of uncertainty

and intimidation," he added.

 

The ILO and Yangon officials last week completed negotiations here on

measures to bring an end to forced labour in Myanmar, an item under discussion

at this year's ILO general assembly, which began last Tuesday.

 

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Rangoon unfazed by threat of sanctions

The Washington Times

June 09, 2003

 

By Richard S. Ehrlich

 

BANGKOK - Burma is counting on its neighbors China and India to blunt any new

sanctions amid attempts in the United States and Europe to punish the nation for

its detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

 

Burma's leader, Gen. Than Shwe, and its foreign minister, Win Aung, personally

laid the groundwork for cooperation with the governments and 2 billion people

in China and India.

 

Burma is wedged between the two giants and has a coveted, ship-friendly coast

along the Bay of Bengal - stretching from Bangladesh to Thailand.

 

"There is no evidence we are worried about sanctions. Not that we want them,

but we are not afraid of them, either because we have lived for 26 years on our

own before, and we have very good neighbors around us and we can simply trade

and exchange relations with our close, good neighbors," said Kyaw Win, Burma's

ambassador to Britain.

 

"We have the two largest countries of the world on either side, who are happily

trading and exchanging all kinds of technical, transportation, security measures

[with Burma], and we are living in harmony with all of them," the envoy told the

British Broadcasting Corp. in an interview.

 

A special U.N. envoy failed yesterday to meet Mrs. Suu Kyi or secure her release,

despite international criticism and the threat of sanctions.

 

Envoy Razali Ismail, on the third day of his five-day mission, said he was still

pressing the generals who moved Mrs. Suu Kyi to an unknown location after

a bloody clash in northern Burma nine days ago.

 

"I am still in the process of making my case," Mr. Razali said.

 

China is Burma's closest ally.

 

Much of northern Burma, in and around Mandalay, allows Chinese migrants to live and

invest there while using China's yuan currency instead of Burma's much weaker kyat.

 

Gen. Shwe, in a rare trip abroad, spent six days in China in January discussing

Chinese financial and military aid.

 

China arms and trains much of Burma's military. Burma depended on China for

more than 40 Chengdu F-7M and Nanchang A-5C warplanes before Russia sold

MiG-29 fighters to Burma in 2001.

 

Burma and China also share a similar strategy in dealing with dissent. Both hung

tough after unleashing bloody military crackdowns that mirrored each other almost

one year apart: Beijing's infamous June 4, 1989, Tiananmen Square massacre

was preceded by Rangoon's Aug. 8, 1988, pro-Suu Kyi demonstrations.

 

Exploiting New Delhi's rivalry with China, Burma spent the past few years cozying

up to India.

 

India had been eyeing construction of a modern highway linking mountainous

Nagaland to Burma's Mandalay and Rangoon and on to Thailand's prosperous

 capital, Bangkok.

 

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