<nettime> Millennium appeal for Burma

[Nadi@hotvoice.com]

Friday, 31 December, 1999, 16:19 GMT
Millennium appeal for Burma

Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has appealed for Asian nations, led
by Japan, to press for democracy in Burma in the new millennium.  The
Burmese opposition leader said her greatest hope for 2000 was for people
to live at last "free from fear" after 37 years of military rule. 

"People wake up in the morning wondering which of their friends have been
taken into detention by the authorities,'' she said in a videotaped New
Year message smuggled out of the country.  ''They wake up in the morning
wondering what the future of their children will be and worrying about it. 
"I think for me ... the great hope for the millennium [is] that we must be
free from want and fear, not just the people of Burma, but people all over
the world."  Plea to Japan Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy
(NLD) won a landslide victory in the 1990 general elections, but the
military refused to hand over power.  In her millennium message to be
delivered at a New Year's eve rally in Hong Kong, she called for greater
support from Asian nations.  And she urged Japan "to take a strong stand
in the battle for democracy" in Burma.  "As the richest Asian country and
as a democracy, Japan has a duty to try to promote human rights and
democracy in other parts of Asia," Ms Suu Kyi said.  "We hope that 2000
will see a blossoming of Japanese interest."  Japan, once a major donor to
Burma, recently offered much-needed aid to the military regime if it made
political and economic reforms.  But the military has remained adamant it
will not make political concessions in return for foreign assistance. 
Sanctions A series of high level meetings between the two countries has
raised concerns among democracy activists that Tokyo may be breaking ranks
from international efforts to pressure the generals towards democracy. 
Burma is subject to US sanctions because of its human rights record, while
the European Union bars visits by senior government officials.  Hundreds
of members of Ms Suu Kyi's party have been imprisoned and thousands
pressured to resign from the NLD since the 1990 election.  

Illegal Burmese arrested 

Nation – 1 Jan 2000 KANCHANABURI -- Police yesterday arrested around 1,000
illegal Burmese immigrants who were on their way to a religious ceremony
hosted by the controversial Dhammakaya Temple.  Around 2 pm police
intercepted 37 crowded buses carrying about 3,000 monks, novices and
laymen heading for the temple in Pathum Thani, where a religious ceremony
to welcome the new millenium was to be held last night. Dhammakaya Temple
had invited 150 temples in Kanchanaburi to participate in the ceremony and
expected to attract some 20,000 people from that province alone, an
informed source said.  However, the source added that the ceremony had not
attracted much attention from Kanchanaburi residents, so that illegal
immigrants and Burmese living in restricted areas in the province had been
approached. They were each offered Bt200 to travel to the temple on the
chartered buses.  The convoy, led by a senior monk in Kanchanaburi, were
intercepted on the Thong Pha Phum-Kanchanaburi road in Sai Yoke district. 
More than 100 officers from a joint police and military task force
searched the buses.  It was discovered that some 1,000 of the passengers
were either illegal Burmese immigrants or Burmese allowed to live in
restricted areas in Sangkhla Buri and Thong Pha Phum districts. 


The Nation ==========

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