Last modified : 20 June 2003 1627 hrs (SST) 0827 hrs
(GMT)

Demonstrators in Washington protest at Myanmar Embassy
over detention of Suu Kyi

The birthday of Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was marked by protests against the country's rulers.In Washington, demonstrators protested the
imprisonment of the Nobel peace laureate and her followers at the Myanmar Embassy.

They are calling on the Bush Administration to send Myanmar's ambassador home and impose strict sanctions against Yangon.

A small but vocal group of protestors gathered outside Myanmar's embassy in Washington, to mark Aung San Suu Kyi 58th birthday.In the US, the country is referred to as Burma.

"The time for political dialogue is obviously dead, and what's needed now is a regime change in Burma," said Dan Beeton, an activist from the Free Burma Coalition.

Aung Din, former prisoner in Myanmar, said: We're here to protest outside the Burmese embassy, to protest for the arresting and attempting to assasinate of our leader Aung San Suu Kyi, U Tin Oo, and other party members in Burma on May 30th."

After the demonstrators trespassed on Embassy property, a handful were arrested.But if two senior US senators get their way, this embassy could soon be shutted and US-Myanmar relations downgraded.Republican Senator Mitch McConnel said: "It's another way of conveying the message that we consider this a pariah regime that does not even deserve the respect of having an ambassador
here."

Senator McConnel, the number two republican in the Senate, is asking the Bush Administration to send Myanmar's diplomats packing.He is also one of the
authors of the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act which calls for a ban on imports from Myanmar, a freeze on any of the Government's assets in the US, and other economic, political and travel sanctions.

"I know there are some sceptics, maybe not in this room, but there are some sceptics that sanctions can ever work."There's one place where they clearly worked and that was South Africa, clearly worked. And the reason was there was widespread international cooperation, and that's what we're hoping for here,
beginning with ASEAN and then spreading out from there, that they'll be widespread international cooperation and we won't be engaged in unilateral sanctions, but multilateral sanctions that squeeze this regime," said Senator McConnel.

Senator McConnel said he is confident that President Bush will support the new sanctions legislation when it reaches him.But first the lower House of the US Congress must pass it. That is expected to happen shortly.

Activists say they support the legislation.Dan Beeton of the Free Burma Coalition said: "These sanctions are going to help the people of Burma, this is what the
people of Burma have continually said they need, this sort of economic and political pressure on this regime. The regime totally controls its exports, especially of garments."

The Senators are also asking the Bush Administration to pressure the UN Security Council on the issue so the International Community is united in its approach.

Copyright © 2003 MCN International Pte Ltd

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Deutsche Presse-Agentur

June 19, 2003, Thursday

SECTION: Politics

Nine protesters arrested outside Burmese embassy

DATELINE: Washington

Nine pro-democracy protesters were arrested early Thursday outside the Myanmar (Burmese) embassy in the U.S. capital on the birthday of the country's detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Those arrested for blocking the embassy entrance were exchange students and members of the Burmese Students' Association, joined by about 30 more human rights activists, a U.S. Secret Service spokeswoman said. They were not immediately charged. The protesters held banners that called Burmese regime leader General Than Shwe a "war criminal" and demanded "regime change" in
the Southeast Asian country, where the ruling military junta's human rights record has drawn widespread international condemnation.

The non-violent protest was one of several held worldwide to mark the 58th birthday of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi, who has been under detention
since a bloody, regime-backed attack on her motorcade on May 30.

"Aung San Suu Kyi's birthday celebration should be a joyous occasion," said Aung Din of the Free Burma Coalition. "Today it is not. The regime continues to
imprison her along with hundreds of others, and we must protest and call for regime change in Burma."

The U.S. government, which has demanded the immediate release of Suu Kyi, is considering more sanctions against the Myanmar regime, and Secretary of State
Colin Powell, in Cambodia for a gathering of Southeast Asian nations, on Wednesday urged Myanmar's neighboursto take a tougher stand.

Powell sent a birthday greeting to Suu Kyi, but the U.S. embassy was unable to deliver it "because, sadly, this is the seventh birthday since 1989 that she has
spent under detention by her country's military rulers", State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said.

"The continued detention of Aung San Suu Kyi, members of her political party and others who have peacefully expressed their political views, is without cause and
unacceptable," Reeker said in a statement.

EDITOR-NOTE:
Adds U.S. State Department