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NEWS - World Bank Mulling Myanmar V
- Subject: NEWS - World Bank Mulling Myanmar V
- From: Rangoonp@xxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 17:30:00
Subject: NEWS - World Bank Mulling Myanmar Visit to Resume Talks
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World Bank Mulling Myanmar Visit to Resume Talks
Reuters
23-JAN-99
BANGKOK, Jan 23 (Reuters) - The World Bank is
considering sending a team to Myanmar to resume talks with
the military government and study the country's needs, a
senior bank official said.
The bank, one of the world's lenders of last resort, cut off
financial ties with cash-strapped and politically isolated
Myanmar last September and said it would not consider
giving the government any more money because it had failed
to make repayments on past loans.
A decision on whether to make the visit, however, hinged on
the views of the bank's major donors, the bank's vice
president for East Asia and the Pacific region told
reporters
late on Friday.
If the visit was approved, bank representatives would most
likely plan to visit Yangon in March or April, Jean-Michel
Severino said.
"We have found in the past that isolation of countries, like
in
the case of Myanmar or North Korea, never works," he said.
"That is one of the reasons behind our consideration of a
plan to visit Myanmar to resume discussion with the
government and all concerned people."
Severino said World Bank representatives would also seek
to meet Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who
heads the National League for Democracy (NLD) party,
which is at odds with government.
He said the visit was not in any way connected to news
reports late last year that international donors and western
nations might consider giving Myanmar $1 billion in aid in
return for government reconciliation and dialogue with the
opposition.
"This is not connected with those reports. It is just that
we
feel that there may be growing social and structural needs
for the Myanmar people that need to be looked into," he
added.
Myanmar's military government has been isolated by western
nations for its poor treatment of the pro-democracy
opposition.
The ruling State Peace and Development Council has
harassed the NLD, curbed its political activities and
detained
and later released thousands of the party's members. Suu
Kyi and the opposition criticise the government for not
fostering democracy and ruling the country with an iron
hand.
Critics of the military, which seized power in a bloody coup
in
September 1988, want it to recognise the results of a 1990
general election which the NLD won with a landslide victory.
The military government has refused to do so and rejected
NLD calls for the convening of a Peoples Parliament of
elected representatives from the 1990 poll.
The country has been buffeted by the Asian economic crisis,
with high inflation and rising social needs among its
people.
The World Bank said last September that Myanmar's loans
and credits had been placed on a "nonaccrual" status,
meaning the government would not be able to borrow money
from the Washington-based multilateral lending agency.
Myanmar could only borrow again after it had cleared its
arrears, estimated in September at $14 million.