Germany-Burma : Bonn protests Burma

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Subject: Germany-Burma : Bonn protests Burma visit rejection for   German politician


Germany-Burma : Bonn protests Burma visit rejection for   German politician

                            BONN, March 20 (AFP) - The German government
formally protested Thursday to
                            the military regime in Burma against its refusal
to allow a prominent German
                            politician to visit the country.

                            Foreign ministry spokesman Martin Erdmann said
that on the instructions of
                            Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel the Burmese
ambassador in Bonn, U Tun Ngwe, had
                            been summoned to the ministry.

                            At the same time the German ambassador in
Rangoon, Wolfgang Wiesner, had
                            registered a protest with the Burmese government
asking it to think again.

                            Count Otto Lambsdorff, a leading member of the
governmental Free Democratic
                            Party and a former economy minister, had wanted
to visit Burma in his capacity as
                            head of the FDP-backed Friedrich Naumann Foundation.

                            But he was told that he could not make the
visit, as he intended among other things
                            to meet with the opposition figure and Nobel
Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu
                            Kyi.

                            A condition of his being allowed to visit was
that he should not meet with
                            opposition figures.