[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index ][Thread Index ]

AP: Christopher Said SLORC's Polici



Subject: AP: Christopher Said SLORC's Policies Increase World Drug Problems

 Christopher Said SLORC's Policies Increase World Drug Problems

  By KENNETH L. WHITING
 Associated Press Writer
   JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- Secretary of State Warren Christopher accused
Burma's military regime today of human rights violations and said its
policies are increasing an international threat from drug traffickers.
   Christopher is in Indonesia for a meeting of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations' Regional Forum, a consultative body concerned with
political and security issues.
   In a move opposed by the United States, ASEAN granted Burma observer
status on Saturday and has promised full membership to Rangoon's military
regime, known as the State Law and Order Restoration Council, or SLORC.
   ASEAN insists that its "constructive engagement" with Burma will
encourage the country to relax its repression of pro-democracy activists,
led by 1991 Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
   Christopher said SLORC's refusal "to heed the desire of a majority of
the Burmese people for a transition to democratic rule and its increased
harassment of the democratic opposition not only violates basic, universal
human rights but raises the chances of instability, bloodshed and migration
within Burma and across its borders."
   Burma's government arrested 262 members of Suu Kyi's party in May in an
attempt to block a meeting where she had vowed to draft an alternative
constitution.
   The United States and several European nations contend that ASEAN's
embrace helps entrench SLORC, which refused to accept a 1990 landslide
victory by Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy.
   "The steady deterioration of the rule of law has increased the threat
that Burma's burgeoning drug trade poses to citizens from Bangkok to Berlin
and from Shanghai to San Francisco," Christopher said.
   A monitoring group, the International Narcotics Control Board, has
reported that Burma is the world's leading opium grower. The U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration estimates that about 2,000 tons of opium come
out of Burma each year.
   China today argued against pressuring the Burmese regime. Foreign
Ministry spokesman Shen Guofang accused the United States and Europe of
meddling in Burma's affairs for ideological reasons.
   "Southeast Asia should do away with the interference from the outside
and solve the issue on its own," Shen told reporters.
   The ASEAN Regional Forum includes the seven ASEAN members -- Brunei,
Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam --
plus the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Korea,
Russia, China, Japan, Laos, Papua New Guinea, Cambodia and the European
Union.
   Burma, which the military regime calls Myanmar, and India were to become
the forum's newest members today.
   The SLORC, meanwhile, said today that it has decided to hold regular
monthly press briefings in an apparent effort to improve its image.
   The military rulers held regular briefings after they seized power in
September 1988, but the practice slowly fell off. With little access to
officials, journalists rely on the heavily censored press to gauge the
rulers' opinions.
   The official New Light of Myanmar newspaper, which reported the
decision, did not say whether foreign journalists will be allowed to attend
the briefings. The military regime has not permitted foreign journalists to
be based in Burma since the 1960s.
   
KT
ISBDA