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Burma rejects Western protest on ri



Subject: Burma rejects Western protest on rights.




		Burma rejects Western protest on rights
		***************************************


	Burma's military regime has spurned protests by Australia and 
other Western nations and ruled out direct neotiations on political 
reform with the democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.

	The Burmese Foreign Minister, Mr Ohn Gyaw, today dismissed Ms Suu 
Kyi as an individual with no status and reiterated the regime's 
determination to implement a constitution that will entrench the 
political dominance of the armed forces.

	Mr Ohn Gyaw descibed Australian concerns over continuing 
political repression and human rights abuses in Burma as being based on 
ignorance and misinformation.

	He said that because Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy 
last year had walked out of a national convention drafting the new 
constitution, the party had "lost the chance of dialogue".

	"We consider her as an individual. The dialogue is a process 
where other parties will have to take part," he said.

	Australia will join the United States and European nations in 
seeking renewed pressure on Burma at the annual regional security talks 
that begin here tomorrow.

	But a weekend meeting of the seven-member Association of 
South-East Asia Nations, which admitted Burma as an official observer, 
reiterated that the situation in Burma was an internal matter.

	Speaking before a meeting with the Australian Foreign Minister, 
Mr Alexander Downer, Mr Ohn Gyaw rejected protests over the recent death 
in custody of 65-year-old James Leander Nichols.

	The Danish Governemnt says Mr Nichols died last month after being 
tortured in prison and has demanded an independent inquiry, but Mr Ohn 
Gyaw said the Anglo-Burmese businessamn had collapsed after eating too 
much rich and fatty food.

	The minister distanced him-self from a commentary in the official 
Burmese press that last week described Mr Nichols as a crrok who had died 
as "retribution" for his "reckless" diet.

	"It is not the Government's stand to say that he is a crook, even 
though he may be a crook," he said.

	Mr Downer said he had raised the Nichols case during his talks 
with Mr Ohn Gyaw and had also made clear that Australia wanted to see 
moves towards democracy in Burma and a dialogue between the regime and Ms 
Suu Kyi.

	A senior Australian official said there "had not been a lot of 
encouragement" in the minister's responses.

	The official said Australia did not accept arguments that the 
death of Mr Nichols, who was jailed for two years after being accused of 
operating an illegal facsimile machine, were an internal matter for Burma.

	"This is a matter of substantial international concern," he said. 
"We don't accept that as a reason for not giving the world a proper 
account for his death."

	EArlier Mr Ohn Gyaw said he would listen to Mr Downer's concerns 
and was preapred to clarify "those angles that the Australian Government 
do not understand or do not have information on".

	He said he could not explain Australia's tougher stance towards 
Burma since 1988 - the year the Burmese military killed more than 3000 
people while crushing pro-democracy protests.

[By Mark Baker, South-East Asia correspondent, Jakarta, 23 July 1996].

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