UN rights chief seeks prisoner rele

[tinkyi@xxxxxxx]

UN rights chief seeks prisoner release in Myanmar
07:18 a.m. Oct 06, 1998 Eastern

GENEVA, Oct 6 (Reuters) - United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Mary
Robinson called on Tuesday for the release of all political prisoners held
in Myanmar and
urged the military government to halt its ``repression'' of the opposition.

In a bluntly-worded statement, Robinson said she had raised issues including
forced labour
and the forced displacement of ethnic minorities with Foreign Minister Ohn
Gyaw in New
York on September 23. She had received ``no satisfactory response.''

``The High Commissioner is waiting for a sign from the government to see
whether thereare any moves in the direction of addressing those concerns,''
U.N. rights spokesman Jose
Diaz told a news briefing in Geneva.

Robinson also called on the Myanmar leadership to have a dialogue with the
opposition on
national reconciliation and allow the independent U.N. human rights
investigator on the
country, Rajsoomer Lallah, to make a fact-finding visit.

The former chief justice of Mauritius has been trying to win permission for
a trip since
being named to the post in 1996 by the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, the
main U.N.
rights body.

The former Irish president, who took up the top U.N. rights job in September
1997, said she
had followed with increasing concern ``the intensification of repression
against Myanmar'spolitical opposition'' over the last few weeks.

``Recently, over 200 members of the National League for Democracy have been
arrested or
detained, while NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been subjected to repeated
harassment,''Robinson said.

She was referring to the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner who endured six years
of housearrest until mid-1995 and is still forbidden to play a political
role.

The NLD won Myanmar's last election in 1990 by a landslide but the military
neverrecognised the result. Two weeks ago it said that 921 of its members
had been detainedsince it resolved to seek a parliament last May.

``I hope that people arrested or detained for political reasons will be
released and allowed to express freely their views and opinions and
demonstrate peacefully,'' Robinson said.

``Further, conditions of detention in the country fall far short of
international standards and a number of prisoners are reported to have died
while in custody.

 ``I take this opportunity to call on the government of Myanmar to guarantee
the rights of freedom of movement and association of all citizens and to
accelerate the process of national reconciliation leading to the enjoyment
of all human rights,'' she added.

The U.N. rights chief reiterated support for Lallah's efforts to visit the
country and called
for the government to ``cooperate with him and allow him to have direct
contacts with the people of Myanmar.''

In his last report to the 53-member Commission last April, Lallah said that
summary executions, arbitrary detentions and forced labour continued despite
the military government's easing of some restrictions on the opposition at
the time.

In July, he expressed concern at the arrest of NLD members and restrictions
on their political activities.