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Burma News Update, No. 88



Open Society Institute
The Burma Project

Burma News Update No. 88
14 July 1999


EU in Quiet Mission
   
A European Union delegation left Burma quietly after two days of closed-door 
talks with the country's army junta aimed at reviving political discussions
within 
the country and dialogue on human rights between the regime and European 
countries. The four-person EU team met with military intelligence chief and
senior 
junta leader Lt. General Khin Nyunt and with National League for Democracy
leader 
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, among other people, in talks a Rangoon-based diplomat 
described as "exhausting." Neither the EU nor the military regime offered any 
comment on the content of the discussions, and the visit received no
coverage in 
Burma's state-owned and closely-controlled newspapers, radio and
television. The 
meetings were the first direct contact between the EU and senior junta figures
since 
the EU imposed sanctions against Burma in 1996 to protest the regime's
political 
repression and gross human rights abuses.
London, "

Bangkok, "Agence France Presse,"  08 July



Junta: Mediation Unwanted
   
Burma's military regime has declared that outside mediation to resolve the 
country's political impasse is unnecessary. Junta Foreign Minister Win Aung 
said in Rangoon that a European Union delegation that just visited Burma was 
on a purely fact-finding mission. "It would not be reasonable," for the EU
to serve

as mediator, Win Aung said, "because it is our domestic affair." No offer to
mediate 
has been received from South Africa's recently-retired President Nelson
Mandela, 
despite reports that the he would be willing to take on such a role, Win
Aung said.

He dismissed the notion of President Mandela's involvement, saying, "I
think Mr. 
Mandela can't understand our politics . . . . Our problems are very complex."

Rangoon, "Reuters,"  09 July


"A Failure of Engagement"
  
In an editorial titled "A Failure of Engagement," the Washington Post
assessed 
the effects of Burma's admission to the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations 
(ASEAN) two years ago. Accepting Burma as a member, ASEAN argued, could 
ameliorate the repressive excesses of Burma's army junta. "The verdict on
this test

case of the engagement theory thus far is clear: The behavior of the thugs
who run 
Burma has worsened, and so has life for most Burmese," the editorial
argues, citing

recent reports by Amnesty International and the International Labor
Organization 
(ILO) that detail egregious and systematic official human rights abuses.
"Aung San 
Suu Kyi, leader of the political party that swept the 1990 elections . . .
says 
repression of her party and arrests of its members have intensified this
year [and]
argues 
that any aid to Burma's generals only strengthens their corrupt rule to the
detriment of 
the population. ASEAN, many of whose members are themselves struggling toward 
increased democracy, soon may have to confront the failure of its engagement
strategy 
in Burma."

"Washington Post," 05 July


Border Fighting Flares
   
Thai border police said that seven Burmese army soldiers were killed 
and another dozen wounded in a failed assault on a stronghold of the Karenni 
National Progressive Party (KNPP) near the Thai frontier. The junta forces
were 
reportedly aided by ethnic Wa militia, with whom the Rangoon regime has 
reached a ceasefire. The KNPP, operating in Kayah State, had also signed a 
ceasefire with the junta, but it lasted less than two years before being
broken in
1997.

Bangkok, "Kyodo News Service,"  08 July


Corporations Face Suits
   
Lawsuits that allege corporate responsibility for human rights abuses are
becoming 
an important new tool for human rights activists in the United States, the
"Financial Times" 
reports. Several are now progressing through U.S. courts. The most
prominent are
two 
suits filed in 1996 against the Los Angeles-based UNOCAL oil company for
complicity
in 
abuses against people living along the route of a natural gas pipeline
project in
southern 
Burma, in which UNOCAL is a partner with Burma's military regime. The
plaintiffs
claim 
that UNOCAL was aware of the junta's record of military abuses, and
accepted its
assistance 
in securing the pipeline route. "If companies go into business with
dictators," a
lawyer working 
on the case stated plainly, "they can be held accountable for the
activities of
their business 
partners."

"Financial Times," 05 July


BURMA NEWS UPDATE is a publication of the Burma Project of the Open Society
Institute.  400 West 59th Street, New York, N.Y. 10019 tel: (212) 548-0632
Website:www.soros.org/burma.html