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Doubts raised on motives behind arr
South China Morning Post
Wednesday September 17 1997
The Mekong Region
Doubts raised on motives behind arrest of exiles
BURMA by William Barnes in Bangkok and Agencies
The Burmese community's vulnerability in Thailand has been exposed after three
ministers of the government-in-exile were arrested in Bangkok.
Thai officials said the three would be deported despite fears they would be
jailed on their return.
The normal procedure is that Burmese arrested in Bangkok are released near the
Thai border, but not forced to return home.
The most prominent of the trio is probably the urbane Teddy Buri, the minister
for Asia-Pacific Affairs. The other two are San Aung, the minister of health
and Thien Oo, minister of justice.
American Michael Deer, who apparently had connections with the exiled groups,
was also detained, along with five other Burmese.
The three ministers of the National Coalition Government of the Union of
Burma, all elected MPs from the National League for Democracy headed by Aung
San Suu Kyi, were arrested in a swoop on their offices on Monday.
Thai immigration officials said yesterday eight Burmese had been arrested for
not having passports.
Opposition groups said yesterday they were working on the assumption that the
three were merely caught in a routine round-up of illegal immigrants.
But the suspicion remains that the Thai Government might be pandering to the
junta in Rangoon by moving against its many opponents in the country.
In Burma yesterday, a League delegation headed by the party's chairman, Aung
Shwe, withdrew at the last minute from a meeting with intelligence chief
Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt, junta officials said. The general, who
requested the meeting, met Mr Aung Shwe in July.
They claimed Mr Aung Shwe told a military liaison officer he could not meet
the Government without Ms Aung San Suu Kyi being present.
A statement accused her of placing "her individual interest above all others
and transforming the League into a private political party".
Junta chairman General Than Shwe yesterday called for "disciplined democracy"
and warned against the machinations of "neo-colonialist subversives" - as
official Rangoon media calls Ms Aung San Suu Kyi - who, the general said, uses
democracy as a facade to work against government efforts for peace.