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NEWS - EU Delegation Meets Myanmar
- Subject: NEWS - EU Delegation Meets Myanmar
- From: Rangoonp@xxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 07 Jul 1999 17:35:00
Subject: NEWS - EU Delegation Meets Myanmar Democracy Leaders
EU Delegation Meets Myanmar Democracy Leaders
Reuters
07-JUL-99
YANGON, July 7 (Reuters) - A European Union delegation
met Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on
Wednesday as part of a mission to promote human rights
and a dialogue between the opposition and the ruling
military.
The mid-ranking delegation, which met the powerful
military
intelligence chief on Tuesday night, also met the leader
of an
opposition ethnic political group, Khun Tun Oo of the
Shan
Nationalities League for Democracy, diplomats and local
political sources said.
They said the delegation met 1991 Nobel Peace laureate
Suu Kyi at the residence of the British ambassador.
No details have emerged on the content of the talks.
Myanmar's tightly controlled state media has not
mentioned
the visit and diplomats from the European Union, which
has
sharply criticised the military for its human rights
record and
failure to democratise, have remained tightlipped.
On Tuesday, the delegation met intelligence chief
Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt, regarded as the most
powerful figure in the ruling military council.
Tauno Kaaria, Finland's ambassador to Thailand and
Myanmar, told Reuters in Bangkok on Tuesday its main
purpose was to revive dialogue with the Myanmar
government in order to promote better human rights.
He said it hoped at the same time to encourage a dialogue
between the military and opposition, who blame each other
for a lack of contact.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won Myanmar's
last general election in 1990 by a landslide but the
military
ignored the result.
The military's subsequent harassment of the opposition,
including the arrest and detention of hundreds of its
members, led the European Union to bar senior government
officials from its borders.
This has created problems for Europe's relations with the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which Myanmar
joined in 1997. Earlier this year, it forced cancellation
of a
meeting in Germany of the foreign ministers of the two
blocs
supposed to take place every two years.
The EU mission comprises a representative of Finland, the
current holder of the EU presidency; Portugal, which will
hold the next presidency; the European Commission, and
the
secretariat of the European Council of Ministers.