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BBC jammed in Burma after Suu Kyi release

LONDON: BBC Burmese language radio broadcasts into Burma are being jammed for the first time in their 55 year history, just a month after the release of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the BBC said on Saturday.

The British Broadcasting Corporation in London said its engineers had found deliberate interference on two of the three regular short-wave frequencies carrying news into Burma.

The interference, which consists of a distinctive electronic noise, was first picked up about two weeks ago but the exact source of the noise has yet to be established, the BBC said in a a statement.

"Jamming is a practice which violates international broadcasting regulations," said Elizabeth Wright, head of the BBC World Service Asia-Pacific section.

"There is no possible justification for this systematic interference with our broadcasts which are simply setting out to provide accurate and impartial information about what is going on in the world, including Burma," Wright added.

The BBC Burmese service interviewed Suu Kyi shortly after her release from six years house arrest, giving Burmese listeners their first opportunity to hear her voice after years of suppression by Burmese military authorities.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won a landslide victory in a May 1990 general election but the military authorities refused to honour the result and sought to silence her and her party through arrests and intimidation.

The BBC said the only other country where its broadcasts are jammed is China where BBC Mandarin programmes have suffered interference since the pro-democracy demonstrations of 1989.-Reuter