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AUSTRALIA: STANDARD NEWS (8/12/95)



	BURMA SHOULD LISTEN: FISCHER
BURMA FISCHER (CANBERRA)
   National Party leader Tim Fischer -- currently touring Burma -- 
has expressed deep disappointment that the Burmese government has 
ignored the result of the 1990 election.
	   The result was an overwhelming victory for Burma's National 
League for Democracy leader AUNG SAN SUU KYI, but a military junta 
has refused to let her govern.
	   Mr FISCHER -- the coalition's foreign affairs spokesman -- met 
Ms SUU KYI at her Rangoon residence, where she has just finished 
six years home arrest.
	   He says the reluctance of the military-based ruling committee to 
recognise the judgment of the people is a denial of the democratic 
process.
	   AAP RTV fh/jg/ag/rt

	ASIA: FISCHER SAYS BURMESE OPPN FEAR PRO-DEMOCRACY CRACKDOWN
THAI FISCHER
  By Ron Corben through AAP
	    BANGKOK, Dec 8 AAP - Burma's Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi 
fears the Burmese military may launch a crackdown against the 
pro-democracy opposition early next year, according to National 
Party leader Tim Fischer.
	   Mr Fischer, who held an hour-long talk with Suu Kyi in Rangoon 
this week, said Australia needed to monitor developments in Burma 
at the start of 1996.
	   Threats of a fresh crackdown against Burma's opposition have 
intensified since Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) 
withdrew last week from the junta's organised national 
constitutional convention.
	   Following the withdrawal, the junta, through official media, 
described Suu Kyi as a traitor and threatened to crackdown on the 
50-year-old Nobel laureatte and her pro-democracy colleagues if 
they tried to destabilise the country.
	   In an interview with AAP in Bangkok, Mr Fischer, asked if there 
was a threat of a crackdown, said: "That was my observation and Suu 
Kyi did not discourage me in that observation."
	   Burmese junta representatives are expected to attend next week's 
Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit with the 
United Nations.
	   The ASEAN states include Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, 
Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei and recently Vietnam. Burma - also 
known as Myanmar - and Laos and Cambodia will attend as observer 
states.
	   Mr Fischer said the junta is likely to be kept in check until 
the ASEAN summit and UN meetings passed.
	   Mr Fischer, the first Australian parliamentarian to meet with 
Suu Kyi since her July release from six years of house arrest, said 
she had restated her call for dialogue with the junta and urged the 
international community to monitor developments in Burma.
	   He described Suu Kyi as an extremely brave, focused, capable and 
courageous woman.
	   Suu Kyi appeared quite relaxed despite the difficult 
circumstances, he said.
	   The junta, known as the State Law and Order Restoration Council 
(SLORC), came to power in 1988, when it brutally suppressed 
pro-democracy protests calling for an end to military rule in Burma 
extending back to 1962.
	   Mr Fischer described the atmosphere in Rangoon between the junta 
and the NLD as tense.
	   While in Rangoon, Mr Fischer also met with an official from the 
Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
	   In Thailand, he met with the Thai opposition leader Chuan 
Leekpai and held talks with the Thai deputy minister for 
Agriculture and Cooperatives Suvit Khunkitti.
	   Earlier this week Foreign Minister Gareth Evans appealed to 
Asia's regional states to pressure Burma's military to begin talks 
with Suu Kyi, describing the situation in Burma as delicate.
	   Senator Evans also warned the rising tensions may led to a 
reaction of the kind in 1988 when the armed forces gunned down 
hundreds of students and demonstrators.
	   AAP sl