AFP-Myanmar junta seeks rapprocheme

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Subject: AFP-Myanmar junta seeks rapprochement, but no "monkeys" to West

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Myanmar junta seeks rapprochement, but no "monkeys" to West criticism
YANGON, Aug 26 (AFP) - Besieged by foreign criticism, sanctions and a
ramshackle economy, Myanmar's ruling generals are well aware of the need to
bridge the gulf with their opponents to achieve progress -- but insist it be
on their own terms.
"We are not monkeys," said Brigadier-General David Abel, a minister in the
office of the chairman of the State Peace and Development Council, and one
of the junta's top figures.

"You don't give us bananas," he says of moves to link international funds to
concessions to the country's political opposition.

"We know that isolation is not desirable, we know that we should not be
isolated anymore. But to be dictated, and dominated and bullied, that is not
our trend of life."

United Nations special envoy Alvaro de Soto is due to visit Yangon early in
September, likely with a World Bank representative, to discuss with the two
camps the possibility of a gradual resumption of UN aid to Myanmar.

The UN initiative is believed to be aimed at coaxing humanitarian
concessions and talks with the pro-democracy opposition from the ruling
military, using the "carrot" of international aid. Press reports have
mentioned the overall figure of one billion dollars from the World Bank.

"We don't move with a carrot and a stick," Abel told AFP.

"We are very flexible. But, with our national pride, we are not anybody's
puppet."

As evidence of its willingness to be flexible, the junta points to its
allowing visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross to
detainees. They also point to the landmark visits in August by Australian
human rights commissioner Chris Sidoti and a European troika in July.

"That shows our flexibility," Abel said.

"They came with a positive stance. Therefore we accepted them with our hands
outstretched, 'come and see for yourself.'"

Western ambassadors in Yangon note what one European diplomat called "an air
of cautious optimism" over prospects for improved relations between Aung San
Suu Kyi and the junta, despite the authorities' "extreme nationalism."

"If the international community is only for Daw (Eds: honorific) Aung San
Suu Kyi, not (aware of) the reality of what we are trying to do, and they
have this conception that only Daw Aung San Suu Kyi can build the nation,
then it's wrong," said Foreign Minister Win Aung.

Junta members are still obsessed by fears of national desintegration after
more than forty years of ethnic insurgency which followed hard-won
independence from colonial master Britain in 1948.

Bred on decades of non-alignment and isolationism, they claim that
"Tatmadaw" (the army) is the only force strong enough to hold the country
together.

But says opposition National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi:
"Patriotism is the last refuge of inefficient government."

Myanmar's military watched with dismay the fall last year of veteran
Indonesian president Suharto, whose leadesrhip they had seen as a model for
their own country.

Western intervention in Yugoslavia has also riled the military, who are
accusing the international community of trying to turn Myanmar into the
Yugoslavia of Asia.

"That is a case where a small country is hit by many big countries in the
name of human rights and democracy," said government spokesman
Lieutenant-Colonel Hla Min.

"This is a sovereign state where without the mandate of the UN, all these
countries are bashing this small country," he added, repeating the junta
mantra that foreign might will cannot change Myanmar's course.

"We have our own principles. We are not going to trade the country for
anything."

He said Myanmar's military was working towards a "multiparty democratic
system" that was not a "carbon copy of Western countries", but which would
be suitable to its culture and national security.

"We have put the country on this proper path, but when all these big
countries are pushing, pulling and giving us too much pressure from outside,
we have to be very careful how we move forward because we could get
derailed."

But foreign analysts warn that a political solution to the stand-off between
the military and the pro-democracy opposition is the only way to put Myanmar
on the track to economic recovery.