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NEWS - A debt to Burma's people



A debt to Burma's people
Boston Globe; Boston, Mass.; Jul 3, 1999;

Sub Title:
          [City Edition]
Start Page:
          A10
ISSN:
          07431791

Abstract:
On both economic and humanitarian grounds, there is a strong case for
reducing the debt of nations that are among the least developed
countries.
But there should be criteria for debt relief to make sure that any
forgiveness
of debt from rich nations and international financial institutions
relieves
the
suffering of people living in the poorest countries and does not
increase
their
misery.

On the list of 33 highly indebted countries that qualify for the debt
relief
proposed last month at a summit of the Group of Seven rich industrial
nations, there is one, Burma, that is ruled by a military junta so
corrupt and
cruel that it cannot possibly meet the standards proposed for
eligibility.

Full Text:
Copyright Boston Globe Newspaper Jul 3, 1999


On both economic and humanitarian grounds, there is a strong case for
reducing the debt
of nations that are among the least developed countries. But there
should be
criteria for
debt relief to make sure that any forgiveness of debt from rich nations
and
international
financial institutions relieves the suffering of people living in the
poorest countries and
does not increase their misery.

On the list of 33 highly indebted countries that qualify for the debt
relief
proposed last
month at a summit of the Group of Seven rich industrial nations, there
is
one, Burma, that
is ruled by a military junta so corrupt and cruel that it cannot
possibly
meet the standards
proposed for eligibility.

The G-7 called for standards of transparency for seriously indebted
countries. The money
they would save would have to be spent for health, education, child
survival, AIDS
prevention, and sound government financial practices.

The Burmese junta however, has had sanctions imposed on it by the United
States and
the European Union for its involvement in the heroin trade. On June 17
the
UN's
International Labor Organization banned the junta from receiving aid or
attending
meetings until it ends its widespread practice of forced labor -- a
horror
the ILO
denounced as "nothing but a contemporary form of slavery."

The junta has transformed what was once the most literate population in
Asia

into one of
the least educated. It has notoriously denied Burma's high rates of HIV
infection as well
as the drug use and sex trade it has facilitated. The junta has also
killed
children by
forcing them to serve as porters for the military in mined areas.

Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and leader of the party
that won 80
percent of parliamentary seats in the 1990 election the junta refused to
honor, put the
case against misguided aid clearly: "If the provision of aid simply
enables
an authoritarian
government to assume less responsibility for the welfare of the people,
or
to strengthen
its despotic grip, or to increase the opacity of its administration, it
will
do irreparably more
harm than good."