AP: Burma Leader Calls for Action 0

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Subject: AP: Burma Leader Calls for Action 04/08/97

                         Burma Leader Calls for
                         Action

                         Tuesday, April 8, 1997 10:04 am EDT

                         BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- Burmese democracy leader
 Aung
                         San Suu Kyi appealed in a smuggled videotape today
 for
                         international intervention to protect her
followers from Burma's
                         military regime.

                         The tape, seen in Bangkok, was to be played today
before the
                         United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva.

                         The regime has denied a U.N. investigator on human
 rights access
                         to the country. Suu Kyi has been under virtual
house arrest in
                         Rangoon since November and messages from her are
increasingly
                         rare.

                         ``I put the political rights of the National
League for Democracy
                         and others working for democracy in Burma as the
most
                         important item on the agenda of the Human Rights
Commission,''
                         Suu Kyi said.

                         The tape was made before a parcel bomb exploded
Sunday at the
                         home of Lt. Gen. Tin Oo, a member of Burma's
ruling State Law
                         and Order Restoration Council. His eldest daughter
 was killed,
                         but he escaped injury.

                         No one has claimed responsibility for the blast.
The National
                         Council of the Union of Burma -- a Thailand-based
group of
                         dissident movements -- contended today that the
bomb ``could
                         only have been planted by persons with
high-security clearance.''

                         However, Burma said the bomb had been mailed from
Japan. In a
                         statement, the Burmese government said it
suspected that
                         Burmese dissidents were to blame.

                         Suu Kyi espouses political change only through
peaceful means,
                         for which she won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize.

                         She said in the tape that her party's rights were
of paramount
                         importance because the government already had
crushed all other
                         democratic political parties operating nationally
in Burma.

                         Her party won 82 percent of the vote in a 1990
national election
                         that the junta refused to honor. A U.N. General
Assembly
                         resolution that year urged Burma's authorities to
respect the
                         election results and institute democracy.

                         Suu Kyi urged the United Nations to see that the
resolution was
                         implemented and not to ``just regard it as a piece
 of paper.''

                         Since May 1996, the military government has
launched a series of
                         crackdowns on Suu Kyi's party, arresting hundreds
and
                         sentencing many to long prison terms.

                         Several party members have been forced to resign,
Suu Kyi said.

                         The actions against her party, she said, show
``how far the
                         authorities are prepared to go to prevent
democracy from taking
                         root in Burma.''

                         Suu Kyi also urged the Thai government to stop
forcing Karen
                         refugees back to Burma and to allow the U.N. High
                         Commissioner for Refugees to help them.

                         More than 15,000 Karens have fled a recent Burmese
 army
                         offensive, joining an estimated 70,000 refugees
from Burma
                         already living in Thailand. The Thai government
has denied forcing
                         anyone to return.

                         However, refugees, Thai villagers and some Thai
soldiers have
                         told The Associated Press that refugees have been
forced back
                         into Burma. The United States, the European Union,
 the United
                         Nations and human rights groups have urged
Thailand to stop the
                         forced repatriations.

                                   ? Copyright 1997 The Associated Press

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