Myanmar's top leader here soon for four-day visit

JAKARTA (JP): One of Myanmar's top leaders, Gen. Than Shwe, is scheduled to start a state visit to Indonesia on Monday as the guest of President Soeharto.

Gen. Than Shwe, the chairman of the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), will be in Indonesia for four days to enhance relations between the two countries in the economic, trade and other sectors, Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono said.

Announcing the planned visit at the Merdeka Palace, Moerdiono said yesterday that the Myanmarese leader is coming to strengthen mutual understanding as well as ties.

Talks between Than Shwe and Soeharto are scheduled for Tuesday. On Wednesday, the Myanmarese guest will travel to Bandung to visit the state-owned aircraft manufacturing plant, and then to Yogyakarta to see the 9th century Borobudur temple.

Than Shwe will be accompanied by his wife, a SLORC secretary, and the Myanmarese ministers for agriculture, transportation and economic planning. From Jakarta, he will proceed to Singapore.

Although Than Shwe is chairman of the council, real power is in the hands of Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt, who is the council's first secretary. Khin Nyunt visited Indonesia in December 1993.

It will be Than Shwe's first visits to any members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) since becoming chairman of the ruling council in 1992.

His trip comes as ASEAN's "constructive engagement" policy with Myanmar is once again under fire, this time by an American congressman.

Democratic congressman Bill Richardson from New Mexico urged ASEAN governments on Wednesday to abandon the policy and to put pressure on Yangon to release opposition leader and Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.

Richardson visited Myanmar early this week in the hopes of securing Aung San Suu Kyi's release before July 19, the sixth anniversary of her detention.

ASEAN -- grouping Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand -- has refused calls by the West to isolate Myanmar and to put pressure on the military government, stressing that such an approach would not work.

The regional organization has instead opted for the "constructive engagement" policy. Last year, Myanmar was invited for the first time to be a guest at ASEAN's annual foreign ministerial meeting. Singapore has also invested in Myanmar and other ASEAN countries are establishing trade links with Yangon.

Indonesia has established an agency called the Indonesian House which is coordinating private investment and trade with Myanmar. The agency is headed by Hutomo Mandala Putra, chairman of the widely-diversified Humpuss Group.

One of Humpuss' subsidiaries, PT Rante Mario, an integrated timber firm, has been operating in Myanmar since late 1993. (emb)