Burmese Sage Urges USG Boycott of '06 ASEAN

UNCLAS RANGOON 000313 SIPDIS SENSITIVE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL BM ASEAN SUBJECT: Burmese Sage Urges USG Boycott of '06 ASEAN Summit ¶1. (SBU) Burma's foremost female journalist, writer, and social critic, Ludu Daw Amar, recommends that the United States boycott the 2006 ASEAN summit scheduled to be hosted by the Burmese junta. Her strongly worded counsel, in keeping with her nearly 70 years of public activism for equality and liberty in Burma, was relayed to DCM and P/E Chief during a March 8 courtesy call at her home in Mandalay. After a polite general exchange with Burma's literary doyenne about her work and family, emboffs asked, "Do you have any advice for us?" expecting tips on living a long and fruitful life. She immediately switched gears to the political realm, stating, "The United States and the European Union should boycott the 2006 ASEAN summit." ¶2. (SBU) Ludu Daw Amar, 90, has long been one of Burma's leading publishers, translators, authors, and sometime socialist revolutionary, having organized student strikes and protests as early as 1938. She maintains an avid following among intellectuals, cultural and social groups, and student organizations supportive of the pro-democracy movement. Despite her advanced age, she reports that Burmese security agents still monitor her activities. ¶3. (SBU) One of her surviving sons, living in the Burma-China border area, reportedly leads a remnant of the Burma Communist Party. Another son is Aung San Su Kyi's attorney in the court case pitting ASSK against her AmCit brother in an estate dispute about her house. Emboffs noted a large painting of Aung San Su Kyi hanging over Ludu Daw Amar's dining room table. A third son, running the family publishing house in Mandalay, is very close to ASSK's inner circle of Rangoon friends and confidants. That the regime remains concerned about the activities of 90- year old Ludu Daw Amar speaks to her continuing influence and to the generals' obsession with controlling and repressing critics of the military dictatorship. MARTINEZ