EBO
News Summary:
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1. British tour operator drops
2. No timeframe yet for release of Aung
San Suu Kyi: Myanmar FM
3. Junta accuses Suu Kyi of plotting coup
4.
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British tour operator drops
Myanmar
will no longer promote trips to
government for a travel boycott of the military-run
Southeast Asian nation.
"We won't be actively promoting
a spokeswoman for Abercrombie and Kent,
adding that
from its next brochure, due out this autumn.
Customers enquiring about
Asian destinations, though "if
someone calls up and absolutely insists on
going, we will make bookings for them,"
she said.
In a strongly-worded letter to the
Association of British Travel Agents
earlier this month, the Foreign Office appealed
to British tour operators to
stop arranging holidays to
There were "compelling reasons"
not to take a holiday there, including
human rights abuses and the economic and
political benefits reaped by the
junta from tourists, said junior foreign
minister Mike O'Brien.
Abercrombie and Kent said only a
"handful" of its customers went to
up to 3,130 pounds (4,430 euros, 5,075
dollars) per person.
--------------------------------
No timeframe yet for release of
Aung San Suu Kyi: Myanmar FM
there was no schedule yet for the release of
detained opposition leader Aung
San Suu Kyi.
"We will announce it when the time
comes. I can't see a timeframe right
now," Win Aung told reporters shortly
after arriving in
He said he would discuss the issue with
Indonesian officials.
Win Aung is scheduled to hold talks with
Indonesian President Megawati
Sukarnoputri and his
counterpart Hassan Wirayuda
on Monday.
Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has
been in detention since political
violence on May 30, despite international demands
that she be released.
reconciliation in
Asked about the Thai proposal, Win Aung
said "I'm going to discuss this
matter with the people concerned."
But in
coolly to
"We haven't received any of the
details, we only know what we read in the
newspapers," he told reporters. "But
would rather solve its own problems from
within."
----------------------------------
Junta accuses Suu Kyi of plotting
coup
The Straits Times,
and insists it would never give up its rule
Aung San Suu Kyi and her party yesterday,
accusing them of plotting to seize power
from the regime and insisting that it would
never stand aside.
The comments came a day after the military
government announced that it had
foiled a scheme hatched by rebel and dissident groups to
overthrow the junta by
assassinating its leaders and mounting a campaign of
civil unrest.
It said that the campaign involved
inciting monks, students, workers and opposition
parties to rise up against the regime, and was
mounted in support of Ms Suu Kyi's
National League for
Democracy (NLD).
It stepped up its rhetoric yesterday,
saying that the May 30 violence, which
triggered Ms Suu Kyi's arrest and continuing
detention, was the result of the
NLD's 'strategy to
plot the downfall of the existing government'.
Eyewitnesses to the clashes say that Ms
Suu Kyi and her supporters, who had been
making a political tour of northern
mob in an incident feared to have left dozens
dead.
But in a commentary in the official press,
the junta said the May 30 incident
showed that if the NLD seized power, 'the
country will be a whirlpool of anarchy
and civil conflicts'.
decades, has long cited the threat of civil
strife for its refusal to stand aside
and introduce democratic reforms.
It said: '(The NLD) made attempts to cause
the imposition of international
sanctions on
hardships, and to make demands to the international
community to ostracise
the country.'
In yesterday's commentary, the government
ruled out ever standing aside in
favour of the pro-democracy opposition, saying
that the only way forward was
for them to work together.
'The true programme for democracy
is...accepting the existing Tatmadaw (military)
government as an ally and joining hands with it,' it
said.
Political analysts said the situation now
appeared extremely grave for the NLD
and Ms Suu Kyi, and that she was not likely
to be released in the near future.
However,
intervention from other countries or the United Nations.
Foreign Minister Syed Hamid
Albar told reporters: 'It is wiser for
'
They have to pay heed to the wishes of the
international community, including
Asean,' he said on the sidelines of a
Malaysia-Thai business forum in Langkawi.
to resolve the deadlock, he said.
Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai said the roadmap was merely a
'friendly suggestion'
and not an interference in
----------------------------------
Malaysia warns Myanmar over Suu
Kyi
LANGKAWI,
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi or risk intervention
from the United
Nations or other
countries.
"It is wiser for
told reporters.
"This is in the context of ASEAN
(Association of Southeast Asian Nations),
it is within our grasp, we can manage it and
handle it.
"But if nothing happens, then we are
concerned by the possibility that
other countries, other regional organisations
including the United Nations,
may come in to decide their fate, then it
will be more difficult."
"
them. They have to pay heed to the wishes of
the international community,
including ASEAN," Syed Hamid
said on the sidelines of a Malaysia-Thai business
forum here.
trying to resolve the deadlock, he said.
"It depends very much on
but ASEAN's bottom line is that Aung San Suu
Kyi should be released and the
reconcilition process should commence," he said.
Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai said the roadmap was merely a
"friendly
suggestion" for
not an interference in its affairs.
"This is not considered as
intervention in the domestic affairs of
"It's not like we, an outsider,
working on something and asking them to
accept it. It's basically producing a draft, a
dummy of a roadmap rather, for
them to comment on."
He said
"Right now, we are putting on paper a
comprehensive framework," he said.
"The release of Aung San Suu Kyi is
the first step."
He said his
would have to consult his leadership."
If
adding that he would raise the matter with Win
Aung during an economic meeting
in
In
reacted coolly to
"We haven't received any of the
details, we only know what we read in the
newspapers," he told reporters. "But
would rather solve its own problems from
within."
###
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