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

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)