Today's News on Burma (r)

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Sydney Morning Herald 
Alison vows never to return to Burma
Date: 18/08/98



The Sydney academic detained in Burma for distributing pro-democracy
leaflets arrived home yesterday vowing never to return to "the most
frightening and scariest place" she had been in her life.

Ms Alison Vicary, 35, and her brother Greg, 31, were mobbed by about 50
enthusiastic well-wishers at Sydney Airport.

A member of the Burmese Support Group, Ms Vicary was sentenced last Friday
to five years' hard labour but then deported.
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Financial Times

BURMA: Junta chiefs meet Suu Kyi party
By Ted Bardacke in Bangkok
Leaders of Burma's military government and the opposition National League
for Democracy, which is led by Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi,
yesterday held an unprecedented meeting that diplomats said could break the
country's protracted political stalemate.


General Khin Nyunt, secretary-one of the junta and a moderate within the
19-member ruling clique, described his 45-minute meeting with Aung Shwe,
chairman of the NLD, as "open, frank and cordial".


"We hope this is the first in aseries of confidence-building talks between
the government and the NLD," Gen Khin Nyunt said. "We have had a fruitful
meeting and have appreciated the NLD's acceptance of our offer of a meeting."


The NLD, whose general secretary, Ms Suu Kyi, is entering her second week
outside Rangoon in a roadside protest against government restrictions on her
movements, did not offer details of the meeting. But diplomats said NLD
leaders were "cautiously encouraged" by the meeting's tone.


"It's still early days, but this could be a start," said one western diplomat.


The meeting came just days before an August 21 deadline the NLD has set for
the government to convene a parliament elected in 1990. The NLD won the
election overwhelmingly but the military refused to honour the results.


Many members of the military government remain opposed to the NLD, Ms Suu
Kyi and the general idea of political openness. State-run media yesterday
reported that three top ministers urged civil servants to "annihilate" Ms
Suu Kyi and her colleagues.


Some diplomats speak of a split between hardliners and Gen Khin Nyunt. But
many believe yesterday's talks could not have taken place without some
consensus within the junta.


The most recent senior contact between the government and the NLD was last
December. Since then, the NLD has rejected two similar invitations, once as
recently as last week, from the military, because they specifically excluded
Ms Suu Kyi from the talks.


The invitation to yesterday's meeting contained no such exclusions, but Ms
Suu Kyi's inability to attend was likely to have been a factor allowing the
meeting to take place, diplomats said.


Ms Suu Kyi is being visited regularly at her roadside encampment by doctors
believed to be acting as intermediaries between her and the NLD executive
committee.
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Human rights groups to pressure Unocal on Myanmar 
05:55 p.m Aug 17, 1998 Eastern 
By Atiya Hussain 

NEW YORK, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Human rights groups, who say their pressure was
key in Atlantic Richfield Co.'s (ARCO) decision last week to pull out of
Myanmar, said they will now turn the heat up on Unocal Corp., the only U.S.
oil company still with interests in the country. 

ARCO representatives insist that the withdrawal from Myanmar wasn't
influenced by human rights and pro-democracy activists, but was a purely
strategic economic decision, given its minor interests in the country,
though rights groups disagree. 

``All this cumulative pressure (on ARCO), with the shareholder resolutions,
the growing consumer boycott, and the deteriorating situation within
(Myanmar), certainly played a role in ARCO's decision,'' said Simon
Billenness, a senior analyst at Franklin Research & Development Corp. in
Boston, a ``socially responsible'' investment firm which played a leading
role in pressuring ARCO. 

Tensions in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, have risen in recent weeks as
opposition leader and Nobel Peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi hasn't been
allowed to travel to visit her supporters outside the capital Yangon
(formerly known as Rangoon). After a six-day stand-off that ended in late
July, Suu Kyi and three supporters have been stuck in a minivan for six days
on a bridge 30 kilometres (20 miles) southwest of Yangon. 

Last Friday, Myanmar reversed a court decision sentencing 18 pro-democracy
activists to five years in jail at hard labour, and instead, suspended the
sentences and ordered the deportation of the individuals in the interest of
``good relations'' with their respective countries. The activists, who were
detained by police in Yangon after handing out pro-democracy leaflets,
included six Americans, three Thais, three Malaysians, three Indonesians,
two Filipinos and an Australian. The leaflets had asked the people of
Myanmar to remember an uprising against the military 10 years ago. 

Also, on Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said that a
``moment of truth'' was approaching for the military-led government in
Myanmar and backed the efforts of Suu Kyi to travel outside Yangon. 

``I think there have been a number of high-level statements from the
Secretary of State that reflect the high level of concern,'' said a State
Department official. However, the official added, ``there is not, at the
moment, a decision to impose additional sanctions beyond what we have.'' 

In May 1997, the U.S. imposed unilateral sanctions on Myanmar, barring any
new investment in the country but allowing existing projects to go ahead. 

Unocal spokesman Barry Lane said the company's interest in Myanmar, the $1.2
billion-plus Yadana offshore gas field targeted at Thailand's market, is
much more significant than ARCO's, which had invested about $50 million in
two projects. 

``Our project is completed (and) we expect to begin production by the end of
the year,'' Lane said. 

The project, in which Unocal has a 28.3 percent stake, is expected to
produce an average of 525 million cubic feet per day within 15 months of
start-up. 

Other shareholders include France's Total SA (TOTF.PA), the operator with
31.24 percent of the field; the state-owned Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise,
or MOGE, with 15 percent, and Thailand's PTT Exploration and Production Plc
with 25.5 percent. 

The Free Burma Coalition, which has sponsored several consumer boycotts of
U.S. companies involved in Burma or Myanmar, maintains that ARCO pulled out
because of commercial threats to its U.S. retail operation. 

``They were certainly beginning to feel increased pressure,'' said Kevin
Rudiger, a spokesman for the Burma Forum, a member of the umbrella group,
the Free Burma Coalition. ``Within the Free Burma Coalition, this was called
the 'ARCO summer,' but really the big target now is Unocal, in terms of our
work in the United States.'' 

But Unocal should prove less vulnerable than ARCO and others to threats of
boycott after it sold its retail outlets and refineries in the U.S. last year. 

``Since Texaco's withdrawal from Burma, ARCO has been the only U.S. company
that did business in Burma and had retail outlets. So that made them very
vulnerable,'' Billenness said. 

U.S.-based Texaco Inc. withdrew from Myanmar in December 1997. 

Nevertheless, Billenness said Unocal will be pressured by shareholder
resolutions, while activists also will press for tougher legislation at the
federal level. 

Unocal is also vulnerable because of a pending court case being fought in a
California district court, which alleges it'sconnected to human rights
violations in the construction of a pipeline linking the Yadana field to
Thailand, activists said. 

On Monday, Unocal's stock added 37.5 cents to $33.375 a share in composite
New York Stock Exchange trading. 

Atlantic Richfield's stock gained 12.5 cents to $68.125 a share on Monday in
composite NYSE trading. 


    ((--Atiya Hussain, New York Energy Desk +1 212 859 1848;
      fax 859 1629; e-mail nyc.energy.newsroom+reuters.com))
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