[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index
][Thread Index
]
US financier: Burma opposition unre
Subject: US financier: Burma opposition unrelated to currency trade
Soros-Burma opposition unrelated to currency trade
**************************************************
NEW YORK, July 28 (Reuter) - U.S. financier George Soros said Monday his
currency trading positions had no relation to his calls for Burma to be
excluded from the Association of South East Asia Nations (ASEAN).
A spokesman for Soros here said the Burma Project of the Soros-funded
Open Society Institute was separate and distinct from Soros Fund
Management, the financier's investment arm.
``There is absolutely no connection with the Foundation's activities, in
this case the Foundation's Burma Project, and the activities of Soros
Fund Management, in this case its rumored trading in the
currencies of South East Asia,'' said spokesman Shawn Pattison.
Soros Fund Management, a hedge fund, was alleged to have taken large
speculative positions against South East Asia currencies and helped to
force effective devaluations of the the Thai baht
and the Philippine peso earlier this month.
On Saturday, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad cited Soros as
being responsible for the recent pressure on the Malaysian ringgit and
other South East Asian currencies. Last week, he blasted currency
speculators as ``rogues'' and ``robbers,'' who were out to destroy his
country's economic progress.
Mahathir also said Soros had tried to use his ``financial clout'' to
block Burma's admission into ASEAN, and said he saw links between Soros'
philanthropic and investment work.
``It is very difficult to separate the right hand and the left hand and
sometimes you don't even know what your right hand is doing. But in this
case, it is quite obvious there is a convergence,'' Mahathir said.
But in a statement, Soros noted that the two organizations operate
independently of one another.
``I can see how this misunderstanding may have arisen as I have publicly
urged the governments of Thailand and Malaysia not to admit Burma into
ASEAN and I consider the acceptance of a totalitarian and repressive
regime a threat to the region's prosperity and stability,'' Soros said.
``However, I do not believe the cause of freedom in Burma would be
advanced by linking it to currency speculation,'' he added.
(Reuter, 28 July 1997)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
News and Information Dept.
All Burma Students' Democratic Organisation (ABSDO) [Australia]
Tel/Fax: 61+03+98132613
----------------------------------------------------------------------------