UN envoy meets Democracy leader Aun

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Subject: UN envoy meets Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi

UN envoy meets Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi

Wed 28 Oct 98 - 09:09 GMT 

YANGON, Oct 28 (AFP) - A UN special envoy has met Myanmar juntagenerals and
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi as pressure builds for Yangon to improve
its human rights record, UN officials said Wednesday.

Alvaro de Soto, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's special envoy to Myanmar,
met Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi at the home of a UN staff member
late Tuesday for nearly one hour, officials said.

The topic of their discussions was not disclosed and de Soto is unlikely to
make any public statement during his four day visit here until he returns to
New York to brief Annan.

On Wednesday morning he met the first secretary of the ruling State Peace and
Development Council, Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt. No details of their
discussions were immediately available.

Aung San Suu Kyi led the National League for Democracy (NLD) party to an easy
victory in 1990 elections but the ruling junta has refused to step aside.

De Sotos's meetings came as the junta announced the death in custody of an NLD
member last week. It said Aung Min, 52, died of lymph cancer while in
detention in the central town of Mandalay.

"The government regrets this sad and unexpected event and has expressed its
sincere condolences to the family. The government has been contributing toward
the family's welfare," a junta statement said.

Diplomats here told AFP the NLD had recently complained of the severity of
conditions in government "guesthouses" where hundreds of its members have been
detained since May.

"The NLD has mentioned Aung Min's death to us and that the level of care in
the guesthouses is insufficient. They are concerned generally about the
prisoners," one western diplomat said.

Opposition groups say more than 1,000 opposition supporters and members have
been detained in recent months as part of what they call the biggest crackdown
on dissent since the crushing of student demonstrations in 1988.

The ruling military council says the detainees are comfortably housed in
guesthouses and well cared for. It says they have been detained for an
"exchange of views" on democracy.

On Tuesday it said it had released 34 NLD members, bringing the total number
freed recently to 95.

De Soto met five ambassadors on Tuesday in a lunch meeting at the Philippine
embassy. His talks were expected to focus on UN General Assembly resolutions
on Myanmar, including one on human rights.

The trip is "part of the dialogue the secretary general is conducting with
Myanmar authorities and others," a UN spokesman said in New York on Monday. De
Soto last visited Myanmar in January.

Annan will submit a report to the UN General Assembly after de Soto's four-day
visit.

Yangon has been under mounting pressure from the international community to
improve its human rights record.

European Union foreign ministers decided in Luxembourg on Monday to sharpen
sanctions against the military state by extending an existing ban on visas for
senior junta officials to cover the tourism sector.

The EU also renewed sanctions agreed in October 1996, which include the
expulsion of military personnel from Myanmar's embassies in Europe, an embargo
on arms sales to Yangon and suspension of non-humanitarian aid.

UN high commissioner for human rights, Mary Robinson, earlier this month
chastised the junta for its human rights record and called for the release of
all political prisoners.

The junta denies all allegations of rights abuses, including the detention of
political prisoners.

©AFP 1998

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