NEWS: Junta ready for talks with S

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Subject: NEWS:  Junta ready for talks with Suu Kyi 

Sunday, July 18, 1999

Junta ready for talks with Suu Kyi 

DHAKA: Myanmar Foreign Minister Win Aung said yesterday that the military
junta was ready to talk with Aung San Suu Kyi, but first she had to stop
attacking the government. 

"The offer for dialogue with her is still there, but first accusations and
criticisms must stop," he told reporters at Dhaka airport on arrival for a
three-day visit to Bangladesh. 

"There is also the need for building confidence and the establishment of
grounds for a dialogue," Win Aung added. 

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) has said it is ready to sit
down with junta officials but claims that the government refuses to
negotiate with her. 

The official media in Myanmar has often accused Suu Kyi of being an
instrument of foreign powers, but the NLD insists that any delegation it
sends to meet the government must be led by her. 

The NLD swept elections in 1990 but the ruling junta has refused to
recognise the result. 

The government has said that talks cannot take place unless the NLD disbands
an interim parliamentary committee it set up last year.--AFP