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SCMP : Rise up against junta, Burme



South China Morning Post
Tuesday  July 28  1998

Rise up against junta, Burmese urged 

FRANK LONGID in Manila 
Burma's junta came under heavy fire yesterday with the Foreign Minister of
fellow Asean member the Philippines urging a popular revolt and US
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright warning of social and economic
collapse.

Their comments, in sharp contrast to the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations Ministerial Meeting's earlier glossing over of Burma's problems,
came as opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's stand-off with police went
into a fourth day.

Police have blocked her latest attempt to visit party members outside
Rangoon. A party source said she was still in her car at a southwestern
village, surrounded by police vehicles.

While Ms Albright chastised Burma's rulers during the Asean Regional Forum
- and had Rangoon's delegates "squirming in their seats", according to
witnesses - Philippine Foreign Minister Domingo Siazon saved his comments
for a news conference.

He lamented "the presence of so many well-educated Burmese abroad".

"I say, if you are really sincere in wanting to change the situation, you
should go home and change it from within."

Mr Siazon said the fight for democratic reforms in Burma should be fought
by the people "in the same sense that we in the Philippines rose up when we
had to overthrow a dictatorship".

"Of course, you risk life and limb, but that's part of the process," he
said, referring to the 1986 military-led "People Power" uprising that ended
Ferdinand Marcos' 20-year rule.

Ms Albright told fellow foreign ministers from Asean and its global
dialogue partners: "Arrests aimed at decimating the opposition continue.

"Members of legal political parties are being prevented from travelling in
their own country. The Burmese economy is falling apart.

"A whole generation of young people is being lost as universities, and now
even high schools, stay closed for fear of unrest."

Ms Albright also chided the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) for
refusing dialogue with Ms Aung San Suu Kyi.

An Asean official said that the mood was tense while Ms Albright made her
speech.

"And when [Burmese Foreign Minister] U Ohn Gyaw spoke, he used the usual
lines, that the SPDC is consulting with the NLD [National League of
Democracy], but that the opposition is setting preconditions to further
dialogue, which is unacceptable."

Ms Albright said: "Criminals who traffic in drugs are still being treated
like honoured citizens, while citizens who speak out for a more lawful
society are still being treated like criminals.

"Burma is also becoming the epicentre of the regional AIDS crisis. Its
response has been denial."

She warned the junta against resorting to "self-isolation", saying: "There
is no way to isolate the Burmese people from . . . the affairs of the
world, and no way to isolate the region from the problems Burma is
exporting."