Burma Bans German Politician From M

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Subject: Burma Bans German Politician From Meeting With  Suu Kyi


Dow Jones Business News -- March 19, 1997
Burma Bans German Politician From Meeting With  Suu Kyi

                                       AP-Dow Jones News Service

                                       FRANKFURT (AP)--The Burmese
government has refused permission for a German
                                       politician to meet opposition leader
Aung San Suu Kyi, officials said Wednesday.

                                       Otto Graf Lambsdorff, economics chief
for the Free Democratic Party, a member of
                                       Germany's governing coalition, has
been denied permission to meet the Nobel Peace
                                       Prize winner, said a statement from a
foundation that Lambsdorff heads.

                                       The Burmese government considered the
meeting 'unsuitable for political reasons,'
                                       said the Friedrich Naumann Foundation.

                                       In February 1996, the Burmese
military rulers had forbidden a meeting between Suu
                                       Kyi and Germany's development aid
minister, Carl-Dieter Spranger. He then canceled
                                       what would have been the first visit
to Burma by a member of a Western
                                       government since the military
takeover in Burma in 1988.