APEC meeting in Bangkok
DVB ( 20 October, 2003 )
The governments of Japan and Indonesia have agreed to keep
on pressurising the SPDC for the release of Daw Aung San Suu
Kyi who is being kept under house arrest in Rangoon.
The agreement was reached when the Japanese foreign minister
Ms Yuriko Kawaguchi and her Indonesian counterpart Hassan
Wirajuda met at APEC meeting in Bangkok, according to Japanese
foreign officials. The matter will also be discussed at the
coming Japan/ASEAN meeting to be held in Tokyo in December.
Although the SPDC is not invited to the current meeting which
is to be held until the 21st of October, it has been reported
that the delegates are likely to have discussions on the SPDC
and democracy in Burma. Mr. George Bush, the US president
who has said that he would openly discuss the matters on Burma
is now in Tokyo and will be arriving in Bangkok on the coming
Monday.
U Htein Lin, the former editor of Botahtaung newspaper told
DVB that the people of Rangoon are also watching the meeting
with intense interest as follows...
U Htein Lin : They are all interested in the APEC meeting
because the previous ASEAN completely failed to address the
issue. Therefore, people are watching what Mr. Bush is going
to say and the likely developments...The SPDC is forcing the
people they could bully such as civil servants and USDA members
to support their road map plan. Most people are interested
in what will happen at APEC meeting and how it will affect
Burma. People want to know when and how Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
is to be released.
At the same time, the Thai government has said that it will
tightly control Burmese activists in Thailand during the period
of APEC meeting so that they could not stage protests. The
local Thai authorities have also sealed off Htam Him refugee
camp in Ratchaburi Province which is mainly populated by Burmese
students and Karen refugees. The authorities have also repatriated
more than 500 Burmese workers and beggars back to Myawaddy,
on the other side of the border on 17 October.
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