No Subject Given

[moe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Downer sees ``long hard road'' to Myanmar democracy

By David Brunnstrom

  
NAKORN SI THAMMARAT, Thailand, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Australia said on
Wednesday it would be tough work encouraging democracy and human rights in
Myanmar, adding that real political change was needed for it to win
international aid. 

Asked if he was optimistic about progress in Myanmar after Yangon said it
would invite World Bank officials back despite a highly critical report from
the institution, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer replied: ``I think it's
going to be a long hard road.'' 

Speaking at a bilateral ministerial meeting in Thailand, Downer suggested
too much had been made in news reports about the Myanmar government's
apparently conciliatory response to the World Bank report leaked to the
International Herald Tribune newspaper last week. 

``I think I would like to see more information before I drew any hard and
fast conclusions on how they were going to respond to the World Bank and
what the World Bank was going to do,'' he told reporters. 

``I would like to feel that as political reforms really took place in Burma,
it would be possible for organisations like the World Bank to help with
economic development. I am sure that would be very much the view of (World
Bank president) James Wolfensohn and the World Bank in general.'' 

The World Bank told Myanmar's ruling generals in a confidential report that
they must carry out major political and human rights reforms to achieve
prosperity on a par with neighbouring countries, the International Herald
Tribune reported last week. 

The draft of a 109-page World Bank report on Myanmar was distributed
secretly to top generals in the ruling military council and opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi and reflected a World Bank-U.N. initiative to break
their political deadlock. 

Myanmar had no comment to make on the report, but said it would invite World
Bank officials in again to the country for further consultations. 

AUSTRALIAN VISIT JUSTIFIED 

Downer defended a decision to send Australia's top human rights official to
Myanmar this year to discuss setting up a rights commission there, a move
criticised by Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's beleaguered opposition. 

``It wasn't misdirected, it was the right thing to do. It's an ongoing
process that we are discussing with the Burmese. We want to see an
improvement in human rights in Burma. We are not prepared to stand back and
do nothing about it.'' 

Myanmar had recently asked Australia about international rights norms.
``They are interested in getting information on human rights standards and
we're obviously enthusiastic about them improving their record on human
rights,'' he said. 

Myanmar's generals have been widely condemned for rights abuses since
killing thousands to crush a pro-democracy rising in 1988 and ignoring the
result of the last general election in 1990 when Suu Kyi's National league
for Democracy won by a landslide. 

Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan also defended his country's efforts to
maintain good relations with Myanmar, which it helped join the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations, now a 10-member bloc, in 1997. 

Asked when he thought such efforts would bear fruit, he said: 

``I think it will take time and we are still working on it.''