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Burma aid offer excludes money



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