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U.S. Congressman allowed to meet wi (r)



/* Written  3:42 pm  Feb 14, 1994 by tun@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx in igc:soc.cult.burma */
/* ---------- "U.S. Congressman allowed to meet wi" ---------- */

02/14 0523  U.S. Congressman allowed to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi

RANGOON (Feb. 14) UPI - A U.S. congressman and a U.N. official met for three 
hours Monday with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the first non- family
visit allowed by Burmese authorities since she was put under house arrest in
1989. 
   Rep. William Richardson (D - N.M.) also was scheduled to meet Lt. Gen. Khin
Nyunt Monday night in what appeared to be an attempt to act as intermediary
between Burma's military strongman and the country's leading opposition figure.
   An informed source in Rangoon said Richardson "probably" would meet two times
each with Suu Kyi and Khin Nyunt in order to carry messages between the two. 
   Richardson, who visited Rangoon last August, also planned to visit dissident
leaders in Rangoon's Insein Jail, according to the source, who requested
anonymity. 
   Accompanying Richardson on his visit to Suu Kyi's well-guarded lake- side
home were the senior U.N. official based in Rangoon, a U.S. embassy official and
a New York Times reporter. 
   Repeated requests by journalists, diplomats and human rights groups to visit
Suu Kyi have been turned down during the nearly five years of her house arrest.
   Only her husband, British citizen Michael Aris, and her sons have been
allowed to visit her. 
   Suu Kyi, daughter of Burmese independence hero Aung San, was the most popular
leader of the 1988 pro-democracy movement before it was crushed by the Burmese
military. 
   Her National League for Democracy won a landslide victory in the election of
1990. But the military ignored the results and clamped down on all forms of
dissent. 
   Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, and remains the leading symbol of
pro-democracy groups in Burma.