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"Situation worsening in Burma: Suu Kyi to UN"

"The Asian Age"
Date April 10, 1999.

Bangkok, April 9: Burma's Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi called on
Friday for a UN resolution on human rights in her country, saying that
the world is yet to take full notice of the "worsening" situation under
military rule.
In a video recorded message to the 55th session of the UN Commission on
Human Rights, she said that the oppression of the democratic Opposition
by the Junta had "worsened greatly" in the past year.
"What we need now is more than mere words," the Nobel laureate said in
the message.
"I hope very much that at this session of the Human Rights Commission a
firm resolution will come out which will protect the basic rights of the
people of Burma", she said.
The Nation League for Democracy leader said that the military, which
has ruled the country in various forms since 1962, had intensified
oppression in a way, the world was yet to realize. "The repression is on
a very large scale but the world has not yet grasped the extent of the
repression because it was spread out over a number of months," Ms Suu
Kyi said.
"As it is, what we have suffered over the last year is far more than we
have suffered over the last six or seven years. So we would like the
international community to be aware of the fact," she added.
She said repression had increased after the NLD called for Parliament
to be convened in May last year, in accordance with the 1990 polls.
The NLD-led Opposition won a landslide victory in the elections, taking
382 of 485 seats. But the military ignored the result and has not
allowed Parliament to sit.
"We are aware that the international community sympathizes with our
situation," Ms Kyi said.
"But there is need for continued action on the part of the
international community to ensure the human rights situation in Burma
does not deteriorate further".
She said that 150 NLD members of parliament were in detention along
with 300-400 regular party members since a renewed crackdown on dissent,
which began last year.
The NLD, in September, announced the formation of a 10-member
"representative committee" to act on behalf of the Parliament elected in
1990.

The move led to the detention of hundreds of party faithful in what
authorities described as "government guest houses".
Ms Suu Kyi said that the NLD had filed lawsuits against the home
ministry and military intelligence but they had been ignored.
She said that although people in Burma had little knowledge of the
Universal Declaration on Human Rights, they knew their basic rights as
human beings. "They do know that people should have the right to sleep
soundly in their beds without fear," she said. The NLD leader added
there was a strong grassroots anti-government feeling in Burma and
people were "aware that there is gross injustice going on."
"The military continued to use forced labour and was unlikely to change
until the government was changed," she added.
Ms Suu Kyi said the use of child labour may have declined as the
economic crisis meant that even adults were finding it difficult to find
work to feed their families. "Some of them (the children) are so badly
malnourished that you would imagine that they came from one of those
disaster areas where there has been a famine and this is in the centre
of Rangoon," she said. She said poverty had become rife in Burma and
fewer people could afford to send their children to school.  (AFP)