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Burma rejects Western protest on ri
Subject: Burma rejects Western protest on rights.
Burma rejects Western protest on rights
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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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