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LATEST DEVELOPMENTS IN BURMA

January 14, 1999 - RON CORBEN, BANGKOK reports -

Burma's opposition leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the country's pro-democracy Party, the National League for Democracy, have filed a criminal complaint against Burma's military Intelligence Chief, General Khin Nyunt, accusing him of attempting to dismember and destroy the their political Party. Diplomatic observers say the case will focus the International spotlight on the issue of the rule of law in Burma.

The complaint, filed with Burma's Chief Justice, accuses Khin Nyunt of being behind the Government's crackdown against the NLD. In recent months 1000 NLD members have been arrensted and forced to resign from the Party. The crackdown began after the NLD's pledge to convene Parliament, when high profile attempts by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to meet with Party members led to several stand-off's between her and the Military Government, when she was prevented from travelling outside Rangoon.

The NLD's compaint was lodged on December 31,1998, but details only became public on Thursday, January 14, 1998. The NLD contents that units under Military Intelligence direction have used threats, intimidation and illegal forceful pressure without legal justification. The NLD, in a statment, says that by using such threats, the Military Intelligence Authorities have committed criminal offences.

The powerful Military Intelligence Chief, Khin Nyunt, is viewed by some diplomatic observers as Aung San Suu Kyi's nemesis. Units under General Khin Nyunt's control oversee a nationwide network of spies and informers who monitor dissidents and root out opposition to the Military Government. In the past, Khin Nyunt has accused Aung San Suu Kyi and her Party members of being terrorists. The Chairman of the ALL BURMA DEMOCRATIC STUDENTS FRONT, AUNG NAIGN OO, now living in exile in Thailand, says the NLD filed the suit to show the Internation Community that the NLD acts within the law, while the Military Government abuses the due process of law.

Diplomatic sources were mixed over the criminal complaint's wider impact. While some view the move as a gesture, others say it will highlight the absence of the rule of Law in Burma, and that the governing Military Council is able to act with impunity. A recent US State Department report on Human Rights in Burma, accused the Burmse Judiciary of failing to be independent. The report said that pervasive bribe-taking and manipulation of the Courts for political ends has continued to deprive citizens of the right to a fail trial and the rul of Law.

Source: Voice of America

Asiaweek (Dec 25, 1998 to Jan 1,1999) writes of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi:

"They were drives to nowhere. Yet for all that, Aung San Suu Kyi achieved what she set out to do: keeping the cause of Myanmar democracy alive. First in a car, then in a van, she set out to visit leaders of her National League for Democracy (NLD) outside Yangon. Forced to a standstill, she lived in the vehicles for days, daring soldiers to move her. Her July standoff, shrewdly timed just as ASEAN ministers met in Manila, turned the heat on the junta which has denied the NLD's sweeping electoral victory in 1990. Keeping up the pressure, she has set the military a new deadline to convene a parliament based on that mandate. Subsequent official media campaigns to discredit Nobel Laureate Suu Kyi as a "menace to the nation", only undermined Yangon's claims to political dialogue. Another year of curtailed freedom has not dimmed the profile of Myanmar's most recognized figure.