New York TImes editorial

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New York Times

NEW PRESSURES ON SLORC

Following an eight-month policy review, the Clinton administration
has reportedly decided to increase pressure on Burma and to ask
other nations the world to stop sending arms to its brutal military
regime.

That would be a just and honorable response to Myanmar's obstinate
refusal to hold talks with its democratic opponents.

This week, the Burmese general known as Secretary One, or S-1 for
short, have his first interview to a Western correspondent in two
years.  Lt Gen Khin Nyunt told Philip Shenon of the New York Times
that he would not meet with, nor grant any political standing to
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's democracy leader and Nobel Peace
Prize laureate who has been under house arrest in the capital for
several years.

This flat statement seemed to dash the hopes of some Westerners who
thought that the Burmese State Law and Order Restoration Council
might be easing its stance.  For the first time since her arrest,
Mrs Aung San Suu Kyi was allowed to see  non-family foreign
visitor, Rep. Bill Richardson of the House Intelligence Committee.

Then, too, the SLORC has been seeking better trade and diplomatic
relations with Japan and the West, and its generals have been
nudged by Tokyo to heed widespread outrage over the detention of
Mrs Aung San Suu Kyi.

She returned to her country in 1988 to aid her ailing mother and
remained at the request of Burmese fed up with decades of brutal,
incompetent and corrupt military tyranny.  In 1990, her National
League for Democracy overwhelmed the SLORC's party in national
elections which the SLORC immediately annulled.

But Gen. Khin Nyunt, the head of Burmese military intelligence,
seemed determined to keep her under arrest. "There are 42 million
people her," he told Mr. Shenon, "and they are not bothered by Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi."

Oh?  Then why not free her and hold another election?  The answer
is self-evident.  The SLORC has no confidence in what 42 million
Burmese think about it.  Until Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi is liberated
and able to speak for herself, there is no reason for anyone to
reward the generals with better trade and diplomatic relations.