Military

DATE= 06/18/03

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=CONGRESS / BURMA (L-O)

NUMBER=2-304484

BYLINE=DEBORAH TATE

DATELINE=CAPITOL HILL

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

///// EDS: WILL UPDATED LATE AFTERNOON FOLLOWING SENATE COMMITTEE HEARING ON BURMA /////

INTRO: A key U-S lawmaker is urging the Bush administration to send Burma's ambassador to the United States back to Rangoon to protest the Burmese government's detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Correspondent Deborah Tate reports from Capitol Hill.

TEXT: Senator Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, wants Washington to downgrade diplomatic ties with the military government in Rangoon until Aung San Suu Kyi and all other political prisoners are freed.

/// MCCONNELL ACT ///

It is another way of conveying the message that we consider this a pariah regime that does not deserve even the respect of having an ambassador here.

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Senator McConnell welcomed comments by Secretary of State Colin Powell in Phnom Penh, calling for Southeast Asian nations to pressure Burma to release Aung San Suu Kyi, but the lawmaker said that was not enough.

Senator McConnell is the chief sponsor of a Senate-passed bill to tighten sanctions against Burma. It includes a ban on all Burmese imports. The House of Representatives must act on the measure before it goes to President Bush for his signature.

The Senate acted on the measure after Aung San Suu Kyi was detained late last month following a clash between opposition activists and government supporters in northern Burma. The government says she is being held in what it calls 'protective custody'.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat who co-sponsored the Senate measure with Mr. McConnell, condemned Burma's decision Wednesday to deny a request by the International Red Cross to see Aung San Suu Kyi.

/// FEINSTEIN ACT ///

It is one more indication of the hard-line recalcitrance of this junta.

/// END ACT ///

Senators Feinstein and McConnell spoke at a news conference to announce the release of a report on Burma from the New York-based Council of Foreign Relations.

The report recommends that the U-N Security Council hold an emergency session to call for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners, to condemn the Burmese government's reluctance to move toward democracy, and to impose sanctions on the regime.

/// REST OPT ///

Mathea Falco, head of the task force that drafted the report, noted that Thursday marks an important day for the Burmese pro-democracy leader.

/// FALCO ACT ///

June 19th is Aung San Suu Kyi's 58th birthday. She will celebrate her birthday alone, incommunicado, in detention of the Burmese military. She has spent most of her birthdays since 1988 under house arrest. Now she is even more isolated.

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Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won the country's last election in 1990 by a landslide, but was never allowed to take power.

The pro-democracy leader, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her nonviolent struggle to promote democracy, was released from house arrest last year after 19 months of captivity. She was also detained by the government for six years ending in 1995. (SIGNED)

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