Posted on 19-8-2003
Exiled
Burmese MP Talk In Auckland
(Photo shows U Teddy Buri on left)
An exiled Burmese MP, Teddy Buri, arrived in New Zealand yesterday
to seek this country's support for pressure on the Burmese military
regime to release democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi and restore
democracy.
He was one of the MPs elected in Burma's last free election,
in 1990, when the country's 45 million people voted overwhelmingly
for Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD).
The military regime refused to allow the new MPs to take their
seats. Many were arrested and others, including Mr Buri, have
since fled the country. He now chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee
of the government-in-exile, the National Council of the Union
of Burma (NCUB), in Bangkok, Thailand.
He is in New Zealand for six days with Dr Myint Cho, who spent
many years as a medical doctor in the liberated areas and refugee
camps along the Burmese-Thai border and is now director of the
NCUB's office in Sydney. Their visit comes as pressure mounts
on the military regime over its latest arrest of Aung San Suu
Kyi in northern Burma on May 30. The 1991 Nobel Peace Prize
winner is still in Rangoon's infamous Insein Jail.
On July 15 the US Congress voted to ban imports of Burmese clothing
and textiles, in addition to a ban on new US investments in
Burma which has been in place since 1997. The European Union
has also tightened its sanctions against the regime. However,
sanctions have been ineffective as long as Burma can trade freely
with its neighbours, especially China and Thailand, which maintain
profitable business relationships and turn a blind eye to the
drug trade. (Burma is the world's largest producer of opium
drugs). New Zealand Foreign Minister Phil Goff, who met with
a delegation of Burmese refugees in Auckland in June, was among
those pressing for action when he attended a meeting of the
Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) in Cambodia
later that month. On June 17, Asean formally urged the regime
to release Aung San Suu Kyi. But the association declined to
impose trade sanctions.
Mr Buri and Dr Cho will meet Progressive MP Matt Robson in his
Otara electorate office at 11am today (Monday). They will meet
Conservation Minister Chris Carter at 5.30pm on Thursday, and
will attend the annual general meeting of the New Zealand Refugee
Council, which Immigration Minister Lianne Dalziel is also scheduled
to attend, in Auckland on Thursday night.
They will address a public meeting at the Trade Union Centre,
147 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn, at 7.30pm on Wednesday night
(June 20).
They will spend Friday in Wellington, where they will address
a lunchtime forum at the Development Resource Centre on the
6th floor of PSA House, Aurora Tce, at midday. They leave for
Sydney on Saturday.
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