22 June 1995

MYANMAR/BURMA

This week Daw Aung Sang Suu Kyi had her fiftieth birthday under house arrest in Rangoon. It is now almost six years since her detention began at the instigation of the military authorities in Myanmar and that detention continues to generate international outrage and disgust. By the most generous reading of Myanmar law, any formal authority for Aung Sang Suu Kyi's detention expires on 19 July, but all the present signs are that the SLORC governing regime will simply ignore that constraint.

The unhappy reality is that, despite the widespread concerns expressed by the international community - and a major effort, since the ASEAN Regional Forum Meeting last year, to bring to bear more united pressure from Europe, North America, Australia and Burma's Asian neighbours - there has been no discernible improvement in the overall political or humanitarian situations in Myanmar. Political liberties are still denied and human rights are severely restricted.

Those political prisoners who have been released have not been allowed to resume political activity, and many others remain in detention. Military force is still being used as the norm for bringing dissenters into line. In few other countries, in Asia or eleswhere, is political freedom so limited.

The Australian Government is presently reviewing our policy approach before the issue is discussed again with ASEAN and its dialogue partners at the annual round of Ministerial meetings in August.

All of us in the international community hope that there will be by then some concrete improvements in the Myanmar situation, including in particular the release of Aung Sang Suu Kyi. But the record of the past several years does not leave much grounds for optimism on this score.

CANBERRA