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

Reuters-INTERVIEW-Myanmar won't be



Subject: Reuters-INTERVIEW-Myanmar won't be swayed by EU sanctions 

INTERVIEW-Myanmar won't be swayed by EU sanctions
10:05 p.m. Apr 27, 1999 Eastern
By David Brunnstrom

MONGLA, Myanmar, April 28 (Reuters) - European Union sanctions on Myanmar's
military government over human rights do not reflect reality and will not
succeed, Foreign Minister Win Aung has said.

``They will do whatever they like and we in our country will steadfastly do
what is right for our country regardless of whatever actions they take,'' he
told Reuters on Tuesday while visiting a minority zone in Myanmar's
northeastern Shan State.

He was responding to a decision by the European Union to extend by six
months restrictions it has imposed on visits by high level officials from
Myanmar.

These restrictions caused cancellation of a meeting of foreign ministers of
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the European Union supposed
to take place in late March.

``We cannot deviate from our chosen path,'' Win Aung said.

``This is very important. They are pressing again and they are using the
same tactics again, which is not successful of course and does not reflect
any reality in our country's situation.''

Win Aung told journalists earlier that Myanmar hoped for normal relations
with the EU.

``We are not invading any country, we are not fighting any country, we are
not threatening any country with nuclear weapons...why not understand our
situation?''

Diplomats in Myanmar estimate the authorities are holding up to 2,000
political prisoners. They include hundreds of members of the National League
for Democracy (NLD), which won 1990 elections by a landslide but was never
allowed to govern.

Win Aung told Reuters NLD members would be freed if the party renounced the
setting up of a committee last year to represent parliament.

``Whenever they announce that, they will be released tomorrow,'' he said.

The vice chairman of the NLD, Tin Oo, said at the weekend the party was
still looking for dialogue with the government but was sticking to its
insistence that its leader, 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi,
be allowed to take part.

The military has long refused to enter a dialogue with Suu Kyi, who has been
the biggest thorn in its side since she emerged as an opposition leader at
the height of a pro-democracy rising crushed by troops in 1988.


NLD chairman Aung Shwe did meet the powerful head of military intelligence
Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt last year and the NLD called for the release
of political prisoners as a sign of good faith.

But Tin Oo said nothing came of this demand.

Win Aung said the NLD had failed to create grounds for discussions.

``Every time, whenever they have the opportunity, they oppose, attack,
denounce and condemn. How can you create grounds where we can stand
together?''

He said the government was working to build a strong nation and economy but
the NLD was doing all it could to thwart that, for instance by calling for a
boycott of tourism.

``We had a vision that we could start our economy moving with tourism, so we
put in a lot of effort and money preparing for that. Then they had a
campaign not to visit Myanmar.

``They have lost the opportunity, they have lost the chance. The people have
come to understand the real motive of the NLD -- just for power, not for the
nation building process.''