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ASEAN asked to press Myanmar on cra



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BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) _ A U.S.-based human rights organization has urged
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to press Myanmar's military
regime to halt a crackdown on the country's leading opposition party.
Human Rights Watch said dozens of members of parliament from the National
League for Democracy, elected in 1990 but never allowed to serve, are
believed to have been arrested or threatened in recent days.

The league and other opposition sources say that ``verbally or in writing,''
authorities have asked elected candidates of the party to sign pledges
restricting their movements, and that those who refused to do so were being
imprisoned.

The crackdown came in apparent response to a June 23 demand by the league
that the country's military regime convene by Aug. 21 the Parliament that
was never allowed to meet.

The demand marked the first time the party, headed by 1991 Nobel peace
laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, had set a deadline for the military to convene
Parliament. Her party won a large majority of the seats in the poll.
Many Western nations have ostracized the military regime in Myanmar _ also
called Burma _ for its poor human right records. Japan and ASEAN, however,
have pursued a policy of ``constructive engagement,'' arguing that close
ties bring a better opportunity for influence.

``At the upcoming ASEAN ministerial meeting in Manila on July 24, we urge
them to intervene with the Burmese government to seek an immediate end to
this pattern of harassment,'' said the statement from Human Rights Watch
received in Bangkok.

Although ASEAN members ordinarily shy away from ``interference'' in each
others' affairs, Thailand's foreign minister recently suggested it was time
to change that policy.

An article in Myanmar's state-controlled press Monday suggested that Suu Kyi
could face a long prison term for her political activities.
In what has been widely interpreted as a threat against her life, it also
warned that she could become another ``Ngo Dinh Diem,'' the premier of what
was then South Vietnam, who was assassinated by military officers in 1963.
The allusion caused concern because of an incident June 25 in which
unidentified men assaulted members of the youth wing of Suu Kyi's party
outside her home in the Myanmar capital, Yangon, after police tried to block
them from holding a regularly scheduled meeting.

Suu Kyi reportedly fell or was pushed to the ground during the melee.
In November 1996, a pro-government mob attacked Suu Kyi's motorcade,
smashing car windows with sticks and crowbars and slightly injuring one of
her top aides. Some said later they had been paid by the government to
attack the car.

Another Myanmar opposition group, the All Burma Students' Democratic Front,
said in a press release received in Bangkok that visitation privileges for
42 elected lawmakers from the league already in prison have been withdrawn.
It also claimed that a special detached house in the women's section of
Insein Prison was being renovated last week, and was ``believed to be '' for
Suu Kyi.

It said the house was built in December 1995 after the league walked out on
the military regime's constitutional convention, claiming it was rigged.
Information about the crackdown has been difficult to confirm. Human Rights
Watch said ``international calls to Rangoon are cut off as soon as mention
of these incidents is made.''
Several queries faxed this week by The Associated Press in Bangkok to the
government's main spokesman have gone unanswered. 020955 jul 98
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