[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index ][Thread Index ]

Burmese activist renews call for re



Subject: Burmese activist renews call for refugee status in Japan


	Burmese activist renews call for refugee status in Japan
	********************************************************
		
  TOKYO, Aug 21 (AFP) - A Burmese pro-democracy activist blamed by  
Rangoon for a parcel bomb attack on the home of a senior official, 
on Thursday urged Japan to grant him refugee status, Kyodo News 
said. 

   "It is very likely that I will get the death penalty if I were  
to go back," Thomas Gon Aung was quoted as telling a news 
conference. "My friends and family could also get jail terms." 

   In 1994, Japan's Justice Ministry rejected Gon Aung's  
application for refugee status, the news agency said. 

   Gon Aung, 36, who has been in Japan since 1989, is waiting for a  
reply to objections he filed with the ministry against the 1994 
decision. 

   On Thursday, Gon Aung tried to file a new application seeking  
refugee status but was rejected, his lawyer Shogo Watanabe was 
quoted as saying. 

   Sixteen other Burmese activists also sought to file fresh  
applications Thursday but were rejected, he said. 
   Watanabe said the junta's naming in June of Gon Aung as a  
suspect in the parcel bomb attack in April put his client in greater 
danger than before. 

   Newspapers controlled by Burma's ruling junta, the State Law and  
Order Restoration Council (SLORC) have reportedly printed Gon Aung's 
name and picture, calling him a suspect in the bomb attack that 
killed a daughter of a senior junta official. 

   Gon Aung denied charges in the news conference, saying no  
Burmese democracy activists based in Japan sent the parcel bomb. 

   The Burmese military government has said it suspects the parcel  
was sent by anti-government groups based in Japan because it bore a 
Tokyo postmark. 

[Asia Human Rgiths, 27 August 1997]


------------------------------------------------------------------------------

	News and Information Dept.
	All Burma Students' Democratic Organisation (ABSDO) [Australia]
	Tel/Fax: 61+03+98132613

------------------------------------------------------------------------------