The Nation(27/8/99)

[mandalay@xxxxxxxxxx]

Junta gesture
BURMA has become the first Asean country to agree to release Thai prisoners to
commemorate the 72nd birthday of His Majesty the King, Foreign Ministry
spokesman Don Pramudwinai said yesterday. 
Fifty-three Thais will be released from several Burmese jails following a
request from Thailand that Asean nations jointly celebrate HM the King's 72nd
birthday on Dec 5, Don said. 
Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan raised the issue when he met Lt Gen Khin Nyunt
of Burma's State Peace and Development Council and his Burmese counterpart U
Win Aung in Rangoon. 
Surin was in the Burmese capital to co-chair the fifth Thai-Burma Joint
Commission meeting. 
''Burma agreed to the Thai request and conveyed the message through the Thai
ambassador in Rangoon yesterday,'' the spokesman said. 
Burma also took note of another request to release Thais who are on trial in
the country, Don said. 
Apart from Thailand and Burma, Asean comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Laos,
Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam. 
------------------------------------------------------------
Rebel wants junta to enter dialogue 
THE leader of an ethnic rebel group called on Burma's military government
yesterday to enter a dialogue with the opposition to avert a national uprising
called for next month. 
Gen Bo Mya, leader of the Karen National Union guerrillas, said in an open
letter to Senior Gen Than Shwe, head of ruling State Peace and Development
Council (SPDC), that all political forces in the country had stated a desire
for democracy. 
'I strongly ask that those three political forces in Burmese politics that are
willing to work for the development of a democratic country - the NLD, the
SPDC
and the ethnic groups - should initiate a genuine dialogue immediately in
order
to achieve the democracy that people want,' it said. 
The military, which came to power in 1988 by crushing a prodemocracy uprising,
has long resisted a dialogue with the National League for Democracy, the
country's main opposition party. 
While it says it is willing to enter talks with the NLD if the party makes
concessions, it does not want three-party tailk, including ethnic rebel
groups,
that have battled for decades for greater autonomy. 
Bo Mya, whose KNU is one of a' handful of ethnic forces still fighting
Rangoon@s powerful military, said BurmWs myriad economic and political
problems
made an uprising 'very much a pos- sibihty'. 'If you cannot solve these
problems you will find wide- spread opposition of the people," his letter
said.

Bo Mya signed the letter as president of the National Coun- cil of the
Union of
Burma, an umbrella group of dissidents based on the Thai-Burma border. 
Dissidents in exile have been urging another uprising for democracy on the so-
called 'four nines day' - Sept 9, 1999. 
They chose the day for its numerical E;ignfficance after "four eights day'
-Aug
8,1988 - when the student-led pro-democracy revolt began in the country 11
years
ago. 
==============================