[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index ][Thread Index ]

NEWS - World Bank Mulling Myanmar V



Subject: NEWS - World Bank Mulling Myanmar Visit to Resume Talks

<burmanet-l@xxxxxxxxxxx>
X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.0
X-Sender: strider@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

NOTE: STOP THE WORLD BANK FROM GIVING ANY MONEY TO BURMA !!!!


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.