BBC/Pilger on Daw Suu's standoff

[carol@xxxxxxx]

Following is a transcript from BBC's "The World Today" program, July 28,
1998, of a report on Daw Suu's ongoing standoff with the military regime,
followed by comments by journalist/filmmaker John Pilger ("Inside Burma:
Land of Fear").  His latest documentary on Burma will air on British
television tonight.  Friends in Britain, please let us know how we can get a
copy of this program.

* * *

Nik Gowing:  ... Ms. Suu Kyi has been stuck in her car since Friday at a
police roadblock outside Rangoon.  The U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright has said the United States will hold the Burmese military
responsible for Ms. Suu Kyi's health and welfare.  Senior foreign diplomats,
including those from the European Union, Japan and Australia have also
warned Burma not to escalate a standoff with Aung San Suu Kyi.  Well, Simon
[Mercep] now reports on Burma's increasing international isolation.

Simon Mercep:  The bridge is 26 km northwest of the Burmese capital,
Rangoon, and inside the car, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.  She's been
there since Friday.  Local people report she has run out of food and water
and officials from her party are concerned she may collapse.

Several figures have taken up position in front of the car.  Foreign
diplomats say Burma's government is blocking Ms. Suu Kyi from visiting
supporters outside the capital.  This is at least the third time in recent
weeks that the Nobel Peace laureate has been prevented from leaving Rangoon.
The government said that she is not under house arrest but is being
monitored for her own protection.

The treatment of Ms. Suu Kyi has drawn fresh criticism from the
international community.  A group of foreign ministers, including those from
the United States, the European Union and Japan, has met the Burmese foreign
minister at the ASEAN meeting in the Philippines.  The group called for
urgent action to resolve the standoff with Ms. Suu Kyi and to grant her
freedom of movement.

Yesterday the American Secretary of State said the United States would hold
Burma responsible for Ms. Suu Kyi's health and welfare.  Madeleine Albright
also said Burma was heading for a breakdown and a possible social explosion.
But Burma's leaders said Washington's accusations over Ms. Suu Kyi were
typical of the way a superpower acted out simultaneously the roles of judge,
jury and executioner.  Simon Mercep, BBC News.

Nik Gowing:  Well joining me now is the journalist and filmmaker John
Pilger, who's traveled widely throughout Asia and has made many television
documentaries about Cambodia, Indonesia as well as Burma.  His latest
documentary about events in Rangoon is being shown on British television
tonight.  Welcome, John Pilger.  When you last saw Aung San Suu Kyi -- you
can't get back into the country at the moment -- she was worried that Burma
was slipping from the headlines.  What has been going on while all this has
been happening.

John Pilger:  I think what's been going on is a confrontation, an
extraordinary confrontation, between this lone woman and the regime.  For
the last couple of years she's been calling for the help of the
international community to impose sanctions on the regime, to really side
with her as effectively the elected leader of the country, but it's been an
extraordinary face-off between this woman, and her supporters, but mainly
this woman on her own and the regime, and there you see these remarkable
pictures of her sitting in a car --

Nik Gowing:  Now it's ironic that this is happening actually at a time when
your documentary's going out, because what you are highlighting is the fact
that despite all the warnings about Rangoon and Burma, actually there's a
lot of doublespeak at the international level.

John Pilger:  There's a huge amount of doublespeak.  For instance, in this
country, the New Labour government came in with what they called "an ethical
foreign policy."  They promised sanctions against Burma in opposition; the
moment they got in the government they forgot about sanctions, and there's
an interview in my film with the Foreign Office Minister Derek Thatcher,
who's in Manila at the moment, no doubt explaining to the rest of the ASEAN
trading bloc why all of them aren't bringing real economic pressure on
Burma.  You see, ASEAN invited the SLORC, the regime in Burma, to be a
member of the ASEAN group, and so they're all speaking with forked tongue
here, because one of their trading partners is Burma.  At the same time,
they're criticizing the regime.

Nik Gowing:  But several large multinationals have disinvested from Burma.

John Pilger:  Yes, they have.  The Texaco oil company did, for instance, and
into their place went the British oil company Premier Oil, which is now one
of the biggest players in Burma and is part of a $700 million consortium
building another pipeline.  And there's no doubt that the profits from that
project will enrich a regime, and you must remember this is a regime 60
percent of its national budget goes on the military, goes on the very tools
of oppression.  So any involvement by oil companies like Premier, or like
Total, the French company, Unocal, the American company, they're all in
there, can only help to prop up the regime.

Nik Gowing:  Well, briefly, you've heard what Madeleine Albright said at
this meeting in the Philippines of ASEAN warning that there's actually
political and social instability ahead.  Do you think we've got to that
stage in Burma?

John Pilger:  I think it's been to that stage for quite a while.  One of the
reasons that the government in Britain refused to impose sanctions is that
they say the situation hasn't deteriorated enough -- 

Nik Gowing:  Hasn't deteriorated enough?

John Pilger:  -- Enough!  You know, there was Daw San San, a Rangoon MP, was
given 25 years recently effectively for giving an interview to the BBC.
They didn't say as much, but that was the reason behind it.  Now here you
have a Kafkaesque, vicious regime -- this should be the lowest benchmark for
any ethical foreign policy, any real action by the international community.
I think the sound and fury should end and there should be action.

Nik Gowing:  Do you think, briefly, the images like we've just seen,
[grabbed] with that car with Aung San Suu Kyi in it on her fifth day -- do
you that actually does actually impinge at all on government, on their
consciences?

John Pilger:  I don't think governments have consciences, and I think that
when their power is threatened and there is a great deal of embarassment,
and I think Suu Kyi is once again embarrassing them with her extraordinary
moral stance on behalf of her people -- it's time for full sanctions against
Burma, it's time for governments to say to their oil companies, "Get out.
This regime is a pariah regime, and it's time to support the elected leader
of that country, which is Aung San Suu Kyi."