'Nuclear Burma'

The Washington times : Wednesday, January 16, 2002; Page A18

The Jan. 6 editorial "Nuclear Burma" referred to "reports" that two Pakistani nuclear scientists with alleged connections to Islamic extremists had found refuge in Burma.

This report has been rejected by our government as baseless and tendentious. The report had given the names of the scientists as Sulaiman Asad and Muhammad Ali Mukhtar. No scientists by these names are members of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC). Also, no employees of PAEC are in Burma.

Two senior PAEC officials attended an International Atomic Energy Agency-sponsored meeting in Yangoon in mid-November and returned to Pakistan immediately upon its conclusion.

ZAMIR AKRAM
Deputy Chief of Mission
Embassy of Pakistan
Washington