BurmaNet News, April 20, 2004

[Editor]

April 20, 2004 Issue # 2459

“Suu Kyi is a real hero in an age of phony phone-in celebrity, which hands
out that title freely to the most spoiled and underqualified. Her quiet
voice of reason makes the world look noisy, mad; it is a low mantra of
grace in an age of terror, a reminder of everything we take for granted
and just what it can take to get it.” – Bono, Time 100/Heroes and Icons

INSIDE BURMA
AP: Myanmar junta still wants military role in country's political future
DVB: Open all our offices, says NLD
Independent: Suu Kyi May Be Free Next Week As Junta Eases Political Curbs
Irrawaddy: National Convention Will Stick to Old Objectives, Says Junta

BUSINESS
Bangkok Post: Asean Trade Meeting Will Focus on 11 Sectors
Korea Times: Daewoo International Myanmar Gas Mine

REGIONAL
Star (Malaysia): Three charged with attempting to murder Myanmar embassy
official

INTERNATIONAL
Guardian: Shetland unites in battle to halt deportations

OPINION/ OTHER
Time Magazine: Time 100/Heroes & Icons: Aung San Suu Kyi
Vancouver Sun: Burmese regime takes baby steps toward democracy

PRESS BRIEFING
Daily Press Briefing, Department of State, Spokesperson Richard Broucher,
Interview

EVENTS
Burma Films at the  human rights film festival May 12-17



INSIDE BURMA
_____________________________________

April 20, Associated Press
Myanmar junta still wants military role in country's political future

Yangon: Myanmar's junta wants any new constitution to guarantee a major
role for the military in the country's political future, a state newspaper
reported Tuesday.

The stipulation raises fresh questions about the junta's intentions,
despite its pledge to usher in a multiparty system being demanded by the
pro-democracy opposition led by Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and
the government's international critics.
A new constitution is scheduled to be drafted at a state-sponsored
convention starting May 17 as part of the military government's
self-proclaimed road map toward democracy.

The convention was suspended in 1996 after three years of work when Suu
Kyi's National League for Democracy party walked out, saying its views and
objections were being ignored and that the convention's procedures were
undemocratic.

The Myanma Ahlin daily newspaper quoted the chairman of the National
Convention Convening Commission, Lt. Gen. Thein Sein, as saying Monday
that the new convention will start "from where it had temporarily
suspended in 1996 under the same procedures and in accordance with six
objectives" that guided the old convention.

The last of the six objectives requires "participation of the military in
the leading role of national politics in the future state."

The NLD had expressed reservations about this principle last time also but
was ignored.

The other objectives are: non-disintegration of the union,
non-disintegration of the national solidarity, perpetuation of
sovereignty, flourishing of genuine multiparty democracy system and
promotion of social truths such as justice, freedom and equality.

Asked to comment on Thein Sein's announcement, NLD spokesman U Lwin told
The Associated Press that "It will be difficult for the NLD to attend"
under such conditions.

Later, he told reporters that the NLD wants to participate in the
convention "in the interests of the people and the country" but also to
have "a dialogue with the authorities first" to allay its concerns that
the party will have no voice in the convention.

The government has invited top leaders and other members of the NLD to
attend but has left out Suu Kyi and party vice chairman Tin Oo on the
grounds that they had not attended the previous convention. They were in
detention at the time and are currently under house arrest again.

U Lwin said the party cannot yet "give a definite answer" whether it will
attend the convention or not until Suu Kyi and Tin Oo are released.

When the convention was suspended in 1996, it had already adopted six out
of the 15 chapters envisaged in the new charter, covering fundamental
principles, the structure of the state, the head of state, the
legislature, the judiciary and the administration.

Presumably, these chapters will not be touched at the new convention,
which will deal with the remaining nine chapters.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, does not currently have a constitution. A
1974 constitution was dropped when the current group of generals assumed
power in 1988 after crushing a pro-democracy uprising that left thousands
dead.

It called elections in 1990 but refused to hand over power when the NLD
won handsomely, saying a new constitution was required before an elected
government can take over.

The junta subsequently launched a crackdown on the NLD, jailing its
leaders and members. The actions have attracted a barrage of criticism by
the West, which in recent years has also raised questions about the
junta's human rights and labor rights records.

_____________________________________

April 19, Democratic Voice of Burma
Open all our offices, says NLD

The National League for Democracy (NLD) welcomed the reopening of its head
office in Rangoon but it also demanded Burma’s military junta, State Peace
and Development Council (SPDC) to reopen all the remaining offices
throughout the country.

U Lwin, the spokesman of NLD who was recently released told DVB in an
interview that all the offices were closed down simultaneously when 30 May
Dipeyin incident occurred and he insisted they should also be reopened
simultaneously. Moreover, he demanded the authorities to allow an
independent enquiry commission to investigate the incident.

When asked about the so-called ‘National Convention’ to be organised by
the junta on 17 May, he insisted that the NLD would not attend it, if it
is to be reconvened like before without making amendments to the 104
restricting rules and regulations.

He also criticised the ‘Bangkok Process’ for Burma which has been
organised by the Thai government as veering away from the original UN
resolutions on Burma.

_____________________________________

April  20, The Independent
Suu Kyi May Be Free Next Week As Junta Eases Political Curbs - Jan McGirk

The Burmese junta appears to be on the verge of releasing the
pro-democracy dissident Aung San Suu Kyi. Burmese exiles and sources in
Rangoon have suggested that she could be freed next week.

When telephone lines to the opposition party headquarters in the capital
were reconnected yesterday, there was a flutter of excitement. Telephone
service was also restored to the homes of several democracy leaders who
have been incommunicado for a year.

Aung Shwe, the chairman of the National League for Democracy (NLD) who was
released from custody a week ago, met half a dozen party leaders yesterday
and seemed optimistic that Ms Suu Kyi would be let out within days. "I
strongly hope and expect that she will be released very soon," he said.
His ramshackle office was padlocked and sealed for months, until
government officials abruptly opened it last Saturday, Buddhist New Year.

If Ms Suu Kyi is freed, it will be the third time she has emerged from
detention since the military government invalidated the 1990 election,
which was won by the NLD. The Nobel peace laureate was rearrested in May
last year when her motorcade, which was travelling to a political rally,
clashed with a violent mob. Some reports say that four people died in the
ambush, others say the death toll was 80. The United States blamed the
attack on "government-affiliated thugs". Months later, Ms Suu Kyi was put
under house arrest in Rangoon after a hysterectomy in a military hospital.

Signals that the generals are easing political repression have been
mounting since they announced a seven-step plan for the establishment of
civilian rule. Now all but two of the senior opposition leaders are out of
jail. The NLD was asked to participate in a constitutional convention next
month, to which representatives of ethnic minorities have also been
invited. No decision will be taken about the NLD's role in devising the
new constitution until all nine of the top leaders can meet, Aung Shwe
said.

In a secret meeting with three senior NLD figures, who were escorted from
jail last month to Ms Suu Kyi's lakeside villa, Ms Suu Kyi reportedly
insisted that she wanted to be the last one to leave custody. A total of
1,300 political prisoners remain in Burmese jails, in conditions far more
primitive than her family home behind coils of barbed wire.

The prolonged detention of Ms Suu Kyi overshadowed a meeting of European
and Asian ministers in Ireland last weekend. Britain pressed hard to keep
Myanmar, as the generals prefer to call their country, out of their forum.
EU diplomats in Brussels were adamant that they must maintain pressure for
human rights improvements in Burma, even if progress on expanding EU-Asian
ties is held up.

Some analysts suspect the ruling military regime is far more concerned
with internal politics than with international relations, although the US
Congress will vote soon on extending trade sanctions. Last year, a
reshuffle gave General Khin Nyunt, a relative moderate, the post of prime
minister.

_____________________________________

April 20, Irrawaddy
National Convention Will Stick to Old Objectives, Says Junta - Kyaw Zwa
Moe and AP

Burma’s military junta stated yesterday that it would hold the upcoming
National Convention in accordance with its previous objectives and
proceedings that brought the old convention to a grinding halt.

The announcement was made by Lt-Gen Thein Sein, chairman of the National
Convention Convening Commission and Secretary-2 of the ruling junta, and
was reported today by the state-run newspaper the New Light of Myanmar.

The junta’s announcement came three days after the National League for
Democracy, or NLD, released a statement expressing its stance on the
convention. The statement issued April 16 read: "Should the same procedure
and rules be adopted in the holding of the National Convention, it will
not be appropriate for us to attend. The formation of a National
Convention has to conform to democratic principles and its rules and
procedure and process must follow suit."

The convention first opened in 1993 but was adjourned in 1996, shortly
after delegates from the NLD walked out, calling the proceedings
undemocratic. The convention, scheduled to reconvene on May 17, is charged
with the drafting of a new constitution. It is the first step of the
seven-point road map to democracy announced by Prime Minister Gen Khin
Nyunt last August.

The six objectives of the convention include the "Participation by the
Defence Services in a national political leadership role in the future
state," a demand that has been strongly criticized by opposition and
ethnic groups.

When NLD spokesman U Lwin was asked to comment on Thein Sein’s
announcement, he said, "It will be difficult for the NLD to attend [under
such conditions]."

The convention’s objectives include the flourishing of a genuine
multiparty democracy system and the promotion of social truths such as
justice, freedom and equality. But several other objectives remain a cause
of contention, such as the non-disintegration of the union, the
non-disintegration of national solidarity and the perpetuation of
sovereignty.

Since April 7, the junta has invited delegates, including political
parties, to attend the convention. Seven NLD central executive members
have been invited to attend. Two others, general secretary Aung San Suu
Kyi and vice-chairman Tin Oo, remain under house-arrest. NLD members that
have already been invited have stated that their participation will be
officially decided only after they have discussed the matter with Suu Kyi
and Tin Oo.
"Personally, I want to see the development of Kofi Annan’s road map, the
release of Aung San Suu Kyi and NLD members and dialogue with political
and ethnic groups," U Lwin told The Irrawaddy on Monday.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan criticized the junta’s road map late last
year. "The only way to ensure that the road map process is productive and
credible, and proceeds in a stable and orderly fashion, is for it to
involve all political parties, national leaders, ethnic nationalities and
strata of society from the beginning," Annan said.

Other ethnic groups have received invitations to attend the convention,
however, they have not yet decided if they will attend and continue to
demand a change in the objectives and proceedings in order to guarantee
their participation.


BUSINESS
_____________________________________

April 20, Bangkok Post
Asean Trade Meeting Will Focus on 11 Sectors - Woranuj Maneerungsee

Asean members will hold further talks on a framework for liberalising
trade in 11 goods and services sectors when economic ministers of the
10-nation group meet in Singapore today.

Members hope the talks on further liberalisation and closer economic
integration can be completed by the end of the year. The ultimate goal of
the programme is integration of the Southeast Asian economies within the
next decade, according to an official of the Thai Trade Negotiation
Department.

Negotiators anticipate that the 10 Asean leaders will sign separate
agreements on the 11 sectors at the annual Asean summit in Vientiane, Laos
late this year, the Thai official said.

At the previous Asean summit in Bali last year, the leaders agreed to
eliminate all trade and investment barriers on the 11 sectors by 2010.

The selected sectors are: farm and fishery products, for which Burma is
responsible; automobiles and wood products (Indonesia); rubber products
and garments (Malaysia); electronics (the Philippines); information
technology and health services and products (Singapore); and tourism and
aviation (Thailand).

Commerce Minister Watana Muangsook is leading the Thai delegation at the
Asean Economic Ministers' Retreat today and tomorrow in Singapore.

"Some Asean officers are thinking about fully opening up those 11 sectors
three years ahead of the target year of 2010. We have to discuss this
further with all parties since some countries are not prepared for that,"
said the official, adding many nations had made progress in mapping out
their plans.

She said, however, that any Asean nations wishing to accelerate the
timeframe could do so under Asean's "two plus" principle. It means two
countries can move together ahead of other nations. Leaders of Thailand
and Singapore, for example, said in 2003 that both would be the first to
reach the Asean Economic Community (AEC) goal five years ahead of the
target year of 2020.

In a related development, trade ministers plan to discuss improving the
efficiency of the Asean dispute settlement body and a new unit to solve
private sector trade and investment problems.

Asean has agreed to cut import tariffs on goods produced under the Asean
Industrial Co-operation programme to zero by 2005, except for Vietnam,
which will have an additional year. The ministers are scheduled to sign an
agreement on this matter in Singapore.

Asean members are Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand.

_____________________________________

April 20, Korea Times
Daewoo International Myanmar Gas Mine

Daewoo International said on Tuesday that it has finalized a drilling plan
for the A-1 Shwe zone, offshore Myanmar, with a $90 million budget for six
appraisal borings and two exploitation drillings.
The trading company will drill though the mine from July this year to June
next year, while setting up an office and dispatching 30 employees for
operation as of May 1.

For the A-3 mining zone, seismic survey and exploitation drilling will be
made at the end of the year and in the beginning of next year,
respectively.

Gas reserves of the A-1 zone are estimated at four to six trillion cubic
feet (TCF), which is equal to 0.7-1.1 billion barrels of petroleum and
80-120 million tons of liquefied natural gas, according to Daewoo.

kenbae at koreatimes.co.kr


REGIONAL
_____________________________________

April 20, The Star (Malaysia)
Three charged with attempting to murder Myanmar embassy official -
M.Mageswari

Kuala Lumpur: Three Myanmar refugee seekers have been charged with
attempting to murder Myanmar embassy minister counsellor Khin Maung Lynn
and causing him grievous hurt.

The three brothers were also charged Tuesday with committing mischief by
fire or explosive substances with the intention of destroying the embassy
building.

They are Abul Fariyas Oo Hardi, 42, who is unemployed, and construction
labourers Mohd Salim Oo Hardi, 33, and Muslim Oo Hardi, 35.

The trio were accused of committing the offences at the Embassy of the
Union of Myanmar in Jalan Ru off Jalan Ampang Hilir in Cheras between
9.45am and 10am on April 7.

They claimed trial to the charges.


INTERNATIONAL
_____________________________________

April 19, The Guardian
Shetland unites in battle to halt deportations: Islanders say Burmese
family have integrated well and appeal to Home Office not to send them
back to uncertain future - Hsiao-Hung Pai

Hazel Minn was given the bad news on March 23, the day before her
birthday. She and her two adopted sons, Simon, 11, and Vincent, 10, had
been forced by poverty to leave their home in Burma and had ended up
moving in with the boys' maternal grandparents at their remote hill farm
in the Shetland Isles. Although a world away from their previous life, the
new arrivals had settled in well.

Then the immigration authorities got involved, and just as she prepared to
celebrate another birthday in her new home, Ms Minn, 37, a cousin of the
boys' birth mother, was informed that their two-year battle to be allowed
to remain in Shetland had failed. They now face a choice between leaving
voluntarily or being deported back to Burma.

"They will not survive in Burma," said the boys' grandfather, Bert
Armstrong. "Our financial support in the past did not always reach them
because of the chaotic social situation there."

To help support the family, his wife, Lilian, has been working hard in a
salmon processing factory in Heylor, a few miles from their home. During
the busier time of salmon and trout production, she worked from 10.30am to
11.15pm, sometimes up to six days a week.

In these basic details, the Minns' story is no different from those of the
thousands of would-be immigrants whose applications to move to the UK are
refused. But there is another element that makes their case extraordinary:
the entire Shetland community, from the boys' schoolmates to the local
paper and the MP, has launched a determined campaign to prevent their
deportation.

On Shetland, whose population has been declining by 1,000 every 10 years,
the tabloid headlines on the Scottish mainland, warning of immigrant
influxes swamping the indigenous population, have been ignored. Instead,
the local community is shaken and outraged by the way a distant authority
is treating a family who have integrated to become Shetlanders.

Simon and Vincent now speak English as their first language and have been
doing well at school. Letters of support from the boys' friends were sent
to David Blunkett, the home secretary, pleading for a reversal of the
decision.

"They play football so well and they're clever at school," one child
wrote. "It will be really really sad to see them leave."

Jon Posnett, headteacher of the 22-pupil Urafirth primary school, said: "A
return to Burma would mean their educational future would come to a
standstill and their potential would be threatened. It would be very
difficult to explain to the kids why Simon and Vincent have to leave. The
family has so much to contribute. It would be a blow to the community here
to lose them. As for the school, it would be like bereavement to see them
go."

The Minns are not the only Shetland family receiving this sort of support.
Tanya Koolmatrie, an Aborigine, is also facing deportation from her home
in Lerwick, the main town, even though she has been living there since
2002 with her Shetlander partner, Davie Thomason, with whom she has an
eight-month-old son. "The secretary of state is not satisfied that you and
your partner intend to live permanently together," the Home Office
informed them.

Scandal

Alistair Carmichael, the Liberal Democrat MP for Orkney and Shetland,
said: "These decisions reflect (the) administrative incompetence of our
immigration departments. The real scandal is that what happens in Shetland
is not unusual. It is a result of target management which is distorting
decision-making process. And there's a very real human consequence to
this. It will affect the community dramatically if the two families are to
be deported."

More than 2,000 people have signed the petition to reverse the decision.
Public meetings have been held. The Shetlanders have now offered free
accommodation for the families to move to if deportation is attempted.
Many have threatened to use civil disobedience to stop the deportation.

Since the early 1980s, the local population has been dwindling as the oil
industry has wound down. Shetlanders argue that migrant labour is badly
needed to increase shellfish production. Locals, most of them the
descendants of immigrant Scandinavians and Scots, see newcomers not as a
threat to their livelihoods but as a way of rejuvenating a stagnating
local economy.

"Industries are declining and our young people are moving out, and they
don't want to come back. Instead of encouraging immigration, they're
forcing people out. We just don't get it," said Hans Marter, a journalist
and supporter of the anti-deportation campaign.

The fight to prevent the families being forced to leave suffered a setback
earlier this month with the sudden deportation of a young Chinese man.
Xinnge Cheng worked as an interpreter in a shellfish processing factory in
Burra, 20 minutes from Lerwick.

Mr Cheng was arrested on April 1 after going to the local immigration
office to act as interpreter for a colleague who wanted to register
himself and six other Chinese workers. The immigration officers detained
him because he was on a student visa which did not permit him to work more
than 20 hours a week. He was deported two days later.

But, speaking from China this week, Mr Cheng told the Guardian that he had
been working fewer than 18 hours a week. He had arrived in Shetland three
days before his arrest. "The decision is against my human rights," he
said.

Shetlanders remain determined to prevent the Minns and Tanya Koolmatrie
suffering the same fate. "I love Shetland," Ms Koolmatrie said. "The
weather's as hard as hell, but it's beautiful here. Since the decision
from the Home Office, everyone here has put their hands out at me. There's
such a strong sense of community here and this is where I'd like to bring
up my child."


OPINION/ OTHER
___________________________________

April 26, Time Magazine
Time 100/Heroes & Icons

Aung San Suu Kyi; Unbearable Choices - Bono/rock star and human rights
activist

It's hard not to become a monster when you are trying to defeat one. Aung
San Suu Kyi is the moral leader of Myanmar, the country more correctly
known as Burma. She has been, in effect, under house arrest since 1989.

Why? First, because of the military juntas who came to power in a bloody
coup in 1962, and have been running the country with a truncheon ever
since. Second, because of us. There has been no real roar against these
human rights abusers, just the odd bark. Yet even single-party democracies
check their mail. They're not just muscle; they're vain. Even juntas
measure just how many boos and hisses they can get away with. Suu Kyi's
peaceful bloody-mindedness is driven by courage, but her captors' bloody
bloody-mindedness is driven by fear--fear of losing the business they are
running for themselves.

Suu Kyi is a real hero in an age of phony phone-in celebrity, which hands
out that title freely to the most spoiled and underqualified. Her quiet
voice of reason makes the world look noisy, mad; it is a low mantra of
grace in an age of terror, a reminder of everything we take for granted
and just what it can take to get it. Thinking of her, you can't help but
use anachronistic language of duty and personal sacrifice.

U2 wrote the song Walk On to honor this amazing woman who put family
second to country, who for her convictions made an unbearable choice--not
to see her sons grow and not to be with her husband as he lost his life to
a long and painful cancer. Suu Kyi, with an idea too big for any jail and
a spirit too strong for any army, changes our view--as only real heroes
can--of what we believe to be possible. The jury is still out on whether
we deserve the faith she has put in us.

Walk On won record of the year at the Grammys, a very proud moment. But in
front of an audience of millions, I did what I've begged others not to do.
I forgot to say thank you to the woman in front of the song. Thank you.
--By BONO, rock star and human rights activist.

___________________________________

April 20, The Vancouver Sun
Burmese regime takes baby steps toward democracy - Jonathan Manthorpe

Southeast Asia is bubbling with rumours that Aung San Suu Kyi, the
mesmerizingly beautiful and eloquent leader of Burma's opposition party,
is about to be released by the military regime from her latest spell of
detention.

The speculation comes as Burma's ruling junta has set May 17 for the start
of multi-party negotiations on a vague "road map to democracy" set out by
the generals.

There is indeed good reason to think Suu Kyi, leader of the National
League for Democracy, will soon be released from nearly a year of house
arrest. She has been under various forms of detention with only brief
interludes of freedom since 1989.

In recent weeks, seven of the nine members of the NLD's executive
committee have been released from detentions imposed in May last year
after government thugs attacked opposition party supporters and killed
many. The junta blamed Suu Kyi for the riot.

Only Suu Kyi and NLD vice-chairman Tin Oo remain under house arrest.

On Saturday, the NLD was allowed to reopen its party headquarters in the
capital, Rangoon, and in a further display of the military regime's kind-
heartedness the telephone connection was restored on Monday.

These are hopeful signs, but it is far too soon to break out flags, strike
up the band and imagine an end to the military rule under which Burma and
its 45 million people have languished since 1962.

The Rangoon generals are skittish as cats in a thunder storm. Any
political flash or bang sends them scurrying back under the sofa, hissing
and clawing.

The regime, which calls itself with stunning inaccuracy the State Peace
and Development Council, has shown extraordinary capacity to ignore the
entreaties of friends and stern lectures from foes. Neither the pleading
of friendly neighbours, who fear the junta taints international relations
with all of Southeast Asia, nor draconian sanctions imposed by Europe, the
United States, Canada and others had any discernible effect. Even
well-intentioned envoys from the United Nations have difficulty getting
visas to visit Rangoon.

The kind of friction caused by disagreements over how to handle the junta
was well illustrated on Sunday. A regular summit between the countries of
the European Union and Asia came to verbal blows over the Rangoon regime.

The EU delegates refused to contemplate inviting Burma to the next summit
in Vietnam in October unless there is evidence of real reform. Asian
delegates, led by Thailand and Japan, told Europe its policy of coercing
the generals wasn't working and it should try constructive encouragement.

But nearly a decade of "constructive engagement" by the 10 countries of
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations has been no more effective in
weaning the generals off the opiate of power than has the blunt instrument
of Western sanctions.

It sometimes seems the generals are willing to contemplate democratic
reform and an end to military rule only so long as it does not involve
democratic reform and an end to military rule.

Part of the general's inertia comes from a manic fear of Suu Kyi, who
along with her own considerable political attributes is blessed with the
regal aura of being the daughter of Aung San, who led Burma out of British
colonial rule, but who was assassinated before the Union Jack was lowered
in 1948.

The Burmese reform movement began in 1987 when the value of salaries and
savings were wiped out by the collapse of the currency. The following
year, thousands of people demonstrating for reform were killed by the army
and Suu Kyi abandoned family life with husband and children in Britain to
take up her father's banner.

The junta declared martial law in 1989 and rounded up thousands of NLD
members, including Suu Kyi who was given her first bout of house arrest.

Then, unaccountably, the generals called a free and fair election. The
only explanation that holds water is that they were fools enough to
imagine the army's political wing could win the vote.

It did not, of course. The NLD won 85 per cent of the parliamentary seats,
so the junta decided simply to ignore the results and carry on ruling
itself.

Since then a lot has happened, but there has been no movement.

Suu Kyi was released from house arrest in 1996, but as soon as the
generals saw evidence of her popularity and NLD political activity,
restrictions were reimposed and hundreds of people detained.

In 2000, restrictions on Suu Kyi were briefly lifted and she held several
weeks of secret talks with junta leaders. But she was quickly back under
house arrest which didn't end until May 2002, after 20 months. One year
later she was back in "protective custody.

The junta's current "road map to democracy" has no timetable and plenty of
room to retreat. But the lower the expectations, the more pleasant the
surprise if there is progress.


PRESS BRIEFING
___________________________________

April 19, Department of State, Daily Press Briefing
Richard Boucher, Spokesman
Washington, DC

QUESTION:  On Burma, a senior NLD official says that they expect Aung San
Suu Kyi to be released within the next day or two.  Do you have any reason
to believe that that's the case?  And do you want to say anything else
about other NLD members who may remain incarcerated?

MR. BOUCHER:  I think the simple answer on that is we'll just have to see.
 We did note and welcome the reopening of the National League for
Democracy's headquarters in Rangoon.  However, we do remain concerned that
senior National League for Democracy leaders, Aung San Suu Kyi and U Tin
Oo remain under house arrest.  Burmese officials have refused our request
to see them.

We are also concerned about the continued detention of hundreds of others
imprisoned for the peaceful expression of their political beliefs.  We
reiterate our call for their immediate and unconditional release.

QUESTION:  Sorry.  Is there more?

MR. BOUCHER:  The political opposition and ethnic groups must be involved
substantially in any progress -- process leading to reform.  Any such
process must allow the free exchange of views.  Some of these things are
being --

QUESTION:  Yes.

MR. BOUCHER:  -- rumored in the context of a dialogue on democracy.

QUESTION:  You said Burmese officials have refused your request to see
them.  Those are recent requests, since maybe in the last couple of days?

MR. BOUCHER:  I think those are continuing --

QUESTION:  Standing requests?

MR. BOUCHER:  Standing and continuing requests.  They get reiterated very
frequently.  I'm not sure how frequently, when the last time might have
been.


EVENTS
___________________________________

May 13, Amnesty International Film Festival
Burma Films

The following films will be screened on May 13 at the Amnesty festival. 
Please click/paste on the url below for more details
http://www.amnestyusa.org/filmfest/weho/2004/may13.html#noplacetogo

In The Shadow Of The Pagodas - US Premiere

Entrenched Abuse: Forced Labor In Burma
No Place To Go
Burma Report: May 30th Incident
Trading Women Los Angeles Premier