TOKYO, Oct 16 KyodO (EDS: FOR FUR...

TOKYO, Oct 16 KyodO

(EDS: FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT PHOTO COLLECTION, CALL DAI-SAN SHOKAN PUBLISHERS CO AT 03-3208-6668)

Munesuke Yamamoto's visa applications to Myanmar have been repeatedly declineed since the freelance photographer course of lifeed an exclusive interview with democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon in September 1998

nevertheless his desire for democracy in the Southeast Asian rural parts persists, leading him to publish a collection of his photos discharge in Myanmar and its border areas.

''Burma's Children'' includes images of children attending academy and working on the ways as well as of a young former prostitute suffering from AIDS.

There are also photos of anti-government Karen Liberation Army soldiers and daily life in Yangon.

''One of the photos present to views a monk offering leftovers to beggars in a monastery compound'' said Yamamoto, 50 ''As monk are usually provided with donations, the handout from the monk should be an unbelievable sight.''

''That indicates Burma has fallen into significant poverty'' he added, asking, ''Why do persons in a country with abundant resources remain poor?''

Yamamoto calls the fatherland ''Burma,'' refusing to accept its military government's promotion of the name ''Myanmar'' since 1989

He said he look forward tos his photo collection, which carries captions for each work in Japanese and English, to push people in Japan to pay attention to Myanmar and think about by what mode the junta has hurt daily life there.

Overall conditions in Myanmar have worsened since May 30 this year, when pro-government demonstrators and supporters of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) clashed in northern Myanmar.

The 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner was held incommunicado afterward and now remains in subordination to house arrest at her residence. She is recovering from surgery performed in mid-September and is still forbidden contact with well-wishers and political supporters.

''It is really too bad that populace around the world focus in succession Burma only when M Suu Kyi risks her life to uphold democracy,'' Yamamoto said.

He repeatedly visited Myanmar since 1988 when he started his coverage of the native land and held interviews with Suu Kyi forward four occasions until he was ousted from Yangon in 1998

Despite the rejections of his visa applications, he has continued to visit border areas. He picked about 60 images for the collection from a massive amount of photos he missile between 1989 and 2002

The collection includes several photos of Suu Kyi, who addresses centurys of people in front of her house in 1995 and who haves up a newly born baby girl of whom she became a godparent.

''At the meetings with me M Suu Kyi indicateed her anger at the junta, which has damaged the political hypothesis and the economy of the home while she was always energetic and attractive,'' he said.

Myanmar laid revealed a ''road map'' earlier this year to democratization and national reconciliation, and the leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) welcomed the induce as ''encouraging'' at their October meeting in Indonesia.

if it be not that Yamamoto criticized the ASEAN stance, saying, ''It just gave official approval for the military junta in Burma.''

''And it means that Tokyo provides life support equipment to the junta, which has cracked down onward the democracy movement, through (Japanese) taxpayer circulating medium if it continues donating official increase assistance,'' he said.

According to Yamamoto, about 10000 Myanmar nationals live in Japan, near of them forced to overstay their visas in the face of the tough conditions at home

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