Congressman Meets Myanmar Dissident : Asia: Democrat becomes the first non-family member to visit Nobel laureate since her ’89 house arrest.

A U.S. congressman met with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Monday in the first non-family visit allowed the Nobel Peace Prize winner in her nearly five years of house arrest.

Rep. Bill Richardson (D-N.M.) also engaged in shuttle diplomacy with the ruling military junta to press for her release. But there was no sign of any change in the government’s position that it will free her only if she agrees to leave Myanmar and live in exile abroad.

“I will not leave the country,” the 1991 winner of the Peace Prize reportedly told Richardson at her home in the capital, where she has been detained without charge or trial since July, 1989.

“The concept of driving somebody out of their own country is totally unacceptable to me,” she told a New York Times reporter who accompanied Richardson, according to today’s editions of the newspaper.

The newspaper said she was in good spirits and apparently good health, but noted that she had sold much of the house’s furniture to buy food.

She also was quoted as saying she had never been allowed to leave the compound of her home during her years in detention.

Suu Kyi also told the newspaper that she is willing to negotiate other matters with the military, other than her leaving the country. But the military has “made no moves to have a dialogue of any kind except on the terms under which I would leave Burma,” she said. Burma is Myanmar’s former name.

Suu Kyi, the daughter of assassinated independence leader Aung San, said she is determined to continue the struggle for democracy in Myanmar, an informed source reported. She expressed interest in discussions with the junta but said she already had been informed that her detention has been extended at least until January, 1995. She appeared to be in good health, sources said.

Richardson delivered a letter to her from President Clinton, who has called publicly for her release.

Both the junta and Suu Kyi sought to benefit from the meeting, which took place a week before the U.N. Human Rights Commission is expected to take up the issue of Myanmar’s human rights record, described by international monitoring groups as one of the world’s worst.

According to the State Department’s annual human rights report earlier this month, at least 500 people remain in prison for political reasons despite a clemency program begun in April, 1992. The junta, which has been trying to improve its image, says more than 2,000 political prisoners have been released.

Monday’s meeting occurred amid a debate within the U.S. government over the sometimes competing interests of upholding human rights and suppressing drug trafficking in Myanmar. The country is the world’s largest source of illicit opium and heroin.