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Burma's Military Leader Promise To



Subject: Burma's Military Leader Promise To Ouit Soon(09/24/88)

Response to "Burmese Response" in Washington Post on Wednesday
                            

                                Copyright 1988 Reuters  
                           The Reuter Library Report

                     September  24, 1988, Saturday, PM cycle



HEADLINE: BURMA'S MILITARY LEADERS PROMISE TO QUIT SOON


   Burma's military leaders have promised to give up power soon, saying they
want people to be loyal to whichever government wins general elections.

   The six-day-old army administration made its appeal as opposition leaders
announced formation of a united front to continue their struggle for democracy. 

   The opposition has so far refused to participate in elections that generals
who seized power on September 18 have pledged to stage within three months. 
   General  Saw Maung,  leader of what dissidents and diplomats labelled a false
coup aimed at keeping veteran socialist authoritarians in control, said in a
radio speech on Friday the military would not stay in office for long.

   Referring to his nine-member cabinet, he said: "The fact that we have formed 
a government with very few people is evidence that we have absolutely no desire 
to hold on to state power for a prolonged period."

   The new ministers have been meeting senior staff members of their ministries 
in the last few days to get government running again in the south-east Asian
country, which gained its independence from Britain in 1948.

   Radio Rangoon said Information and Culture Minister Major General Phone Myint
at a meeting on Friday urged people to unite or else they could "again become
slaves of another country".

   He said workers should discharge their duties to the state with loyalty for
whichever government came to power.

   Opposition leaders, after a meeting on Friday, agreed to form an alliance for
concerted peaceful mass action for an interim government and fair elections. 
   They urged the army to give an accounting of civilians killed, release jailed
protestors and negotiate the formation of an interim government to lead Burma
back to democracy.

   The military government says troops trying to end popular resistance to the
takeover have killed about 200 people, but diplomats and doctors put the number 
at closer to 1,000.

    Saw Maung,  who seized power after months of pro-democracy strikes and
demonstrations, said on radio:

   "As our period of responsibility is very short we will only be able to take
limited action on social affairs such as health, education and other social
services. The long-term reforms in social services ... will have to be carried
out by the government that comes to power after democratic multi-party general
elections are held."

   Diplomats said jamming interfered with a later rebroadcast of the speech. A
voice in Burmese was heard interjecting scurrilous remarks mocking  Saw Maung.  

   Aung San Suu Kyi, 43-year-old daughter of independence hero Aung San, said:
"We think it is up to the government first to stop all the shooting and

restore the country to its previous state when we could at least have proper
democratic demonstrations, freedom of expression."

**********************************
What the SLORC Lies here.

At 04:07 PM 5/7/97, you wrote:
>From: moe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Julien Moe)
>
>The Burmese Response
>
>
>
>                         Wednesday, May 7 1997; Page A20
>                         The Washington Post 
>
>                         The Post's April 24 editorial "When Sanctions Make
>Sense"
>                         supported the Clinton administration's decision to
>impose economic
>                         sanctions on Myanmar [Burma]. It ignored historical
>precedent and
>                         failed to check the facts in portraying dissident
>Aung San Suu Kyi
>                         as having been "democratically elected."
>
>                         The Post's support for sanctions apparently is
>based on the
>                         assumption that there are widespread human rights
>violations in
>                         Myanmar.
>
>                         The government has negotiated successfully the
>return to the legal
>                         fold of 15 armed groups that had been challenging
>successive
>                         governments, leaving only one, the KNU, in armed
>opposition. The
>                         government continues to leave the door open to that
>group, which
>                         after four rounds of talks last year unilaterally
>ended the
>                         negotiation.
>
>                         With regard to the assertion that Aung San Suu Kyi
is a
>                         "democratically elected leader," I should like to
>put the record
>                         straight. Aung San Suu Kyi never was a candidate
>for the 1990
>                         elections, which were held to choose
>representatives to draft
>                         principles for a new constitution. In keeping with
>the election laws,
>                         which were established at the time of our
>independence from
>                         Britain, no citizen married to a foreigner is
>eligible to be a
>                         representative. Thus Aung San Suu Kyi -- who is
>married to
>                         Michael Aris, a British citizen, and who resided in
>Britain all her
>                         adult life, save for the two-year period prior to
>1990 -- was not
>                         eligible to stand for election.
>
>                         Given the findings of the considerable research
>carried out on
>                         sanctions, I find The Post's conclusion that
>"rarely has a nation
>                         been more deserving of economic sanction"
>contrived. First and
>                         foremost, the Clinton administration's decision
>smacks of hypocrisy
>                         coming as it does at a time when the president has
>not been able to
>                         act on analogous situations. It is unconvincing
>that Myanmar should
>                         stand so starkly apart from other regimes. The
>political systems of
>                         some of the United States' allies are not notable
>for their concern
>                         with individual liberties.
>
>                         Second, the chances that unilateral sanctions
>imposed by the
>                         United States would have a measurable impact on
>Myanmar are
>                         nil. Eighty percent of Myanmar's trade is with
>other Asian
>                         countries, and any void that the United States
>might leave in the
>                         wake of the sanctions would be quickly filled by
>Asian investors.
>
>                         It should be noted that unilateral sanctions are
>particularly
>                         ineffective. One need only look at U.S. policies
>toward Cuba, Iraq
>                         and Libya.
>
>                         It is time to question the wisdom of the current
>punitive stance
>                         toward Myanmar by members of Congress and the
>media. At a
>                         time when there is significant change and
>transformation in
>                         Myanmar, when it is opening its doors, creating
>opportunities for
>                         other countries to make a difference not only in
>the economic field
>                         but also in other spheres, it is important for the
>United States not to
>                         be influenced by the rhetoric of dissidents. The
>sooner the United
>                         States realizes this, the better its chanc\es of
>achieving progress on
>                         bilateral issues as well as in bringing about
>positive change in
>                         Myanmar.
>
>                         THAUNG TUN
>
>                         Minister-Counsellor
>
>                         Embassy of the Union of Myanmar
>
>                         Washington
>
>
>