London "wholly condemns" Myanmar op (r)

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  Ê 
      London "wholly condemns" Myanmar opposition arrests

      Wed 09 Sep 98 - 14:23 GMT 

      LONDON, Sept 9 (AFP) - The British government on Wednesday said it
"wholly
      condemns" the latest arrests of opposition activists in Myanmar.

      In a statement issued in London, Foreign Office Minister Derek
Fatchett said: "As a
      result of the deteriorating situation in Burma, we are looking at
further measures to
      bring about substantive dialogue with the opposition."

      He added the government was also considering how to persuade the
Myanmar military
      junta to "respect the results of the 1990 elections."

      Measures being considered by London and its European Union partners
included an EU
      troika ministerial visit to Yangon to meet Aung San Suu Kyi, leader
of the opposition
      National League for Democracy (NLD), said Fatchett.

      In addition, London urged its EU partners to adopt its positions of
discouraging
      tourism, trade or investment in Myanmar.

      On Wednesday the NLD said the military government had arrested 108
more of its
      members, bringing the number detained since Sunday to 328, and since
May to 521.

      In 1990, the NLD and other opposition parties won in a landslide
election but the
      military refused to hand over power and has since rejected repeated
demands that the
      1990 parliament be convened.

      Observers in Yangon said the arrests appeared to be a pre-emptive
strike following the
      NLD's announcement that it intends unilaterally to convene by the
end of September the
      parliament elected in 1990.

                                                                  ©AFP
1998