Yomiuri News

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Yomiuri Shimbun 
( Tuesday, December 12, 1995 )
Japan Government postpones yen loans to Myanmar til next year
	The government has decided to postpone scheduled yen loans to Myanmar 
until 1996 because of stalled efforts to democratize the country, a government 
source said Monday. However, a grant to expand a nursing college in Yangon will 
still be provide because a contract for the work was already singed, the source 
said. Moreover, additional official development assistance( ODA )grants that 
directly affect the daily lives of the Myanmarese will not be frozen, he said.
	According to the source, the Japanese government was preparing to resume 
yen loans for eight projects that it suddenly pulled out of in 1988 when Myanmar 
underwent a military coup. The eight projects include a 4.87 billion yen, plan 
to up grade electrical supply to infrastucture in  Yangon. The yen loans have 
been called off a second time because it has become unclear when the military 
junta ruling Myanmar will hold direct talks with the country's top dissident, 
pro- democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
	Suu Kyi's political group, the National League for Democracy, boycotted 
a national convention late last month, saying the event was to be strictly 
controlled by Myanmar's military leaders. Because the boycott has cast doubt on 
the future of democratic reform in Myanmar, the Japanese government has decided 
not to resume yen loans within this year, the source said.

( Information Committee )
Burma Youth Volunteer Associaton-Japan.