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Burma aid offer excludes money
- Subject: Burma aid offer excludes money
- From: suriya@xxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 02 Dec 1998 19:58:00
Politics
Burma aid offer excludes
money
DEPUTY Foreign Minister Sukhumbhand
Paribatra said on Wednesday that the
United Nations and the World Bank had
offered Burma ''technical assistance'' but
not money in exchange for political
dialogue.
''The United Nations and World Bank want
to give technical assistance to Burma. They
never discussed financial aid,''
Sukhumband said.
He rejected a recent press report that the
two organisations had proposed a billion
dollar lifeline to Burma in exchange for
dialogue between the junta and opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
A junta official said in a statement last week
that the report in the International Herald
Tribune was ''making everybody jumpy'' but
it was ''premature to make any comment at
this stage''.
Aung San Suu Kyi led the National League
for Democracy (NLD) party to a landslide
victory in 1990 elections but the junta -- the
State Peace and Development Council --
has refused to recognise the result.
Political talks have stalled over the junta's
refusal to negotiate with Aung San Suu Kyi
about the formation of the elected
government.
Sukhumbhand said the technical aid
offering depended on the reconciliation of
all political groups in Burma.
He said Thailand did not support the idea
of giving Rangoon financial aid, but he said
technical assistance would ''make the
Burmese government realise that
reconciliation is worth it''.
''We do not support extending a huge loan
to Burma, and the World Bank and the
United Nations have never discussed any
amount of money,'' he said.
The UN General Assembly's human rights
commission last month sharply criticised
''continuing violations of human rights'' in
Burma and called on the junta to hold talks
with the opposition.
The European Union and the United States,
among others, enforce trade and aid
sanctions against the junta over its poor
human rights record and its refusal to
recognise the NLD's election victory.
Agence France-Presse