Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 27, 1990 TAG: 9003270297
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/6 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RANGOON, BURMA LENGTH: Short
In a speech during the annual armed forces day in Rangoon, the general who seized power in 1988 said foreign news organizations are interfering with Burma's internal affairs by broadcasting such critical reports.
"I hereby categorically deny all these groundless accusations as totally false," Saw Maung said.
Foreign media have quoted Western diplomats in Rangoon as saying the government has moved up to a half million people from urban areas to outlying areas in order to break up regions of political dissent.
In a statement received in Bangkok today, Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., compared the resettlement policy to that of ousted Cambodian leader Pol Pot.
During Pol Pot's Communist Khmer Rouge government from 1975-1978, hundreds of thousands of Cambodians died from executions, famine and civil unrest.
The U.S. State Department last week also criticized Burma's relocations. Saw Maung claimed the program was aimed at giving land to homeless people who had been living on religious land, cemeteries and rubbish dumps.
by CNB