Myanmar Embassy in Ottawa News Rele (r)

[khin_s_w@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

OKKAR66129@xxxxxxx wrote:

>                      EMBASSY OF THE UNION OF MYANMAR
>                                  OTTAWA
>                           MYANMAR NEWS RELEASE
>    VOL.10                     AUGUST 17, 1998                    NO.21
>              AN  ANALYSIS  ON  FOREIGN  ACTIVISTS  IN YANGON
>

> .Sanctions and further  economic measures   from
> abroad will only distance the people further from party political
> activities and   delay the orderly transition to a  multiparty
> democratic system.
>
>     * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

IT IS 10 YEARS NOW since Burma's ruling generals waged war on their own
people - murdering students and monks terrorizing all who dared oppose
them.Burma was admitted as a member of ASEAN - mostly in an effort to
engagethe regime and press it towards civility. But IT BLOTTED ITS BOOK EVEN

THEN, BY ROUNDING UP ENTIRE VILLAGES TO WORK AT GUNPOINT IN BUILDING
ROADS AND CARRYING THEIR WEAPONS.

Yet despite the deplorable decade, the atrocious record of Burma's
rulers might have been forgotten, were it not for the singular figure of
* AUNG SAN SUU KYI.*
Yet she has been fighting for far too long.

The U.S. last year banned new investments ; Canada and others have
imposed sanctions.
SANCTIONS AND INVESTMENT RESTRICTIONS WERE A GOOD START.

CANADA and others need to do more - perhaps by using the opening ASEAN
provides - to press the Burmese regime towards change.

* The very fact that THEY DO NOT DARE MOVE MORE HARSHLY AGAINST SUU KYI
SHOWS THAT THEY ARE SUSCEPTIBLE TO INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE *
The diplomatic challenge now is to find ways to make that pressure more
EFFECTIVE.


extract from the editorials , Edmonton Journal
by
Khin Saw Win


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