Reuters : Leading powers warn Myanm

[hlaing@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Leading powers warn Myanmar on Suu Kyi, urge talks 
07:53 a.m. Jul 28, 1998 Eastern 

By Carol Giacomo 

MANILA, July 28 (Reuters) - Leading powers on Tuesday warned Myanmar
against allowing a standoff with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to
escalate and offered to help in resolving tensions in the Southeast Asian
country, U.S. officials said. 

Diplomats said the United States, the European Union, Canada, Australia,
Japan, New Zealand and South Korea confronted Myanmar's foreign minister
during an informal meeting on the fringes of the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) annual conference. 

The minister, U Ohn Gyaw, was instructed to take the firm message back to
Yangon and the international community expected a response, diplomats said.


``A number of foreign ministers felt it was important while gathered in one
place to talk about the situation (in Myanmar with Suu Kyi) first amongst
themselves and then with the Burmese foreign minister,'' a senior U.S.
official told reporters. 

He said the ministers expressed concern about the National League for
Democracy leader's health and stressed ``the fact that they don't want this
to escalate and that this incident needs to be resolved.'' 

For the fifth day, Suu Kyi remained in a car on a road outside the capital
of Yangon because the ruling military junta has refused to let her travel
to meet other members of her party, which won an election in 1990 but has
not been allowed to take office. 

U.S. officials said she had her first direct contact with the military
since the incident began when she got out of the car on Tuesday to ask for
water and was given it. But it did not appear a dialogue or negotiation was
under way, they said. 

U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on Monday expressed grave
concerns about the Nobel Peace Prize winner's health and said the military
junta would be held directly responsible for her wellbeing. On Tuesday,
Albright reported that ``her health is okay.'' 

A senior U.S. official said the opposition leader was seen by two
physicians and ``there are no problems that we know of,'' although concerns
remain because she has been in the car in the blistering heat. 

The ministers told their Myanmar counterpart they want permission for
diplomats based in Yangon to visit Suu Kyi and talk to her ``and see if
there is any way the international community can be helpful in brokering a
solution,'' the U.S. official said. 

Austrian Foreign Minister Wolfgang Schuessel, representing the European
Union, said they had called for the American and Japanese ambassadors in
Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, to undertake this mission. 

ASEAN nations -- Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Laos,
Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei -- were not included in the session with the
Myanmar minister. ``This was a conscious decision not to put the ASEANS on
the spot,'' an American official said. 

In addition to humanitarian concerns about Suu Kyi's health, the ministers
argued that as a matter of principle citizens of Myanmar should be able to
travel freely. 

And they also drove home their consistent call for a dialogue between the
military authorities and the opposition to resolve the country's political
stalemate, officials said. 

Albright, in a speech on Monday, warned of the increasing possibility of a
political ``explosion'' in Myanmar that could undermine regional stability.


She said conditions in Myanmar -- including repression, a declining
economy, narcotics trafficking and an AIDS epidemic -- had worsened in the
past year. ``This is a moment of truth and of urgency for Burma and for all
of us concerned about its fate,'' she added. 

Yangon's military government hit back at Albright, saying the U.S.
``accusations, allegations and condemnations thrown against Myanmar is a
typical way of a sole superpower carrying out a witch hunt.'' 

But the United States has not been alone in its attacks on the military
regime. At the Manila meeting the European Union and Australia, among
others, have expressed serious concern over human rights in Myanmar, where
the military crushed a pro-democracy movement a decade ago with the loss of
many lives. 

On the session with the Myanmar foreign minister, Canadian Foreign Minister
Don McKinnon said: ``We made it clear there is an urgent need to resolve
the situation and allow Aung San Suu Kyi freedom of movement within her own
country.'' 

``We would like once again to strongly appeal to the leadership in
Yangon/Rangoon to enter into a result-oriented dialogue with the
opposition,'' Schuessel told the foreign ministers of the nine-member
Association of South East Asian Nations. 

Delegates at the Manila conference on Asian security issues have depicted
Myanmar's foreign minister as a lonely man who seldom speaks. 

``I think Burma is pretty isolated. Even the other ASEAN countries don't
understand them,'' one European diplomat told Reuters. 

Philippine Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon, who chaired the conference
here, on Monday recalled how Filipinos had used a ``people power''
revolution to overthrow a dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, in 1986. 

He told a news conference: ``I lamented the other day the presence of many
well-educated Burmese who studied abroad but they are not in the country.
They are staying out as life abroad is good. Now I said if you are really
serious and wanting to change the situation in the country you should back
and change it from within.'' 

Referring to the Philippine experience, Siazon added: ``Of course you
risked life and limb, but that is part of the process.''