News from Indian newspaper (r)

[aungsan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

"UN envoy will meet Suu Kyi to end deadlock"

Rangoon, Jan, 22: The UN special envoy to troubled Burma was preparing
on Tuesday to meet Opposition figured Aung San Suu Kyi as part of his
mission to help end her political stalemate with the ruling junta.
 Secretary-General Kofi Annan's representative Alvaro de Soto was due to
meet the N Noble Peace laureate along with the top leadership of her
National League for Democracy party for talks on the deadlock, UN and
NLD sources said.  "The meeting was put back from the early morning, but
Mr. De Soto will meet Aung San Suu Kyi and members of the NLD central
executive in the early afternoon," sources here said.
 NLD figures are expected to urge the UN official to help push for a
dialogue between the NLD, the military government and armed resistance
movements under the terms of a UN resolution on Burma.
 Leading NLD figure Tin Oo said he would also be handing over a series
of letters and papers from other political groupings, war veterans and
"members of the general public" urging a dialogue to end the standoff.
 " They are all advancing the view that the UN resolution should be
respected and are calling for a dialogue as soon as possible," he said
adding that there was " concern over the stalemate" between the two
sides.
 Sources said Opposition figures were hoping Mr. de Soto could help
"unblock the situation," which has been frozen for months as the
juntathe State Peace and Development Councilshows "no signs of
softening its stance".
 The military government has been at loggerheads with political
opposition groups since it refused to acknowledge the NLD's landslide
win in the country's last general election
In 1990.
 The UN envoy, despatched after Mr. Annan met Burma head of state Senior
General Than Shwe at an Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in
December, hopes to convince Rangoon to respect the UN resolution. Mr. de
Soto on a three-day visit to Rangoon which officials hope will help
thrust the political stalemate hereovershadowed by Asia's financial
turmoilback into the spotlight.
 His meeting with the pro-democracy leader comes a day after he met
foreign minister Ohn Gyaw and following a planned meeting with military
junta's strongman, Khin Nyunt.  Mr. de Soto and the foreign minister
"discussed matter of mutual interest," the New Light of Myanmar said on
Thursday without providing any details.  It made no mention of the
planned meeting with SPDC first secretary Khin Nyunt.  The UN envoy is
scheduled later on Thursday to meet ASEAN ambassadors; a meeting with
will be followed by a dinner to be attended by several ambassadors of
the European Union.  (AFP)


"THE ASIAN AGE"
Date 23 January 1998.




"Bangla Army surrounds camp held by armed Burmese refugees"

Chittagong, Bangladesh, Jan, 22: Security was stepped up on Thursday
around a camp in southeastern Bangladesh held by armed refugees from
neighbouring Burma who are refusing to be sent home, officials here
said.
 Forces from the paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles and the police were
positioned outside the camp near Cox's Bazar tourist resort town waiting
for orders, officials said.
 They accused the refugees of using women and children as a "human
shield" to stop any force.
 The armed refugees, from the ethnic group the Rohingya, are thought to
be members of Rohingya Solidarity Organization, an insurgent group in
Burma, and backed by several Bangladeshi Muslim extremist groups.
 The Muslim refugees, who have been sheltered in the area since 1991,
seized the Noapoara camp this week after several of their armed comrades
were arrested from the nearby Kutupalong camp.
 They are refusing to return to their homeland in Burma's Arakan
province unless democracy is restored there and are preventing security
forces from entering the camp.
 Violence erupted at the Noapara camp in 1997 over a bid by the
authorities to repatriate the refugees.
 The official BSS news agency recently reported that 10
"Pakistan-financed" insurgent groups from Arakan were operating in the
area.
 Some 250,000 Rohingyas from Burma fled into Bangladesh in 1991,alleging
persecution by the troops.  Nearly 21,000 of them are now staying in the
camps after most of them were repatriated under a Dhaka-Rangoon
Agreement in 1992.  (AFP)

"THE ASIAN AGE"
Date 23 January 1998.