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Letter to the Washington Post Edito
- Subject: Letter to the Washington Post Edito
- From: ncgub@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1998 12:26:00
September 15, 1998
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Washington Post
at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letter/letterform.htm
The Embassy of Burma's military regime in Washington accused the
Washington
Post of an "attempt to deflect attention from the growing crisis at
home" by
devoting "an entire editorial column" [Burma Crackdown, September 14,
1998]
to the regime's most recent round of arrests. The Embassy finds it
"odd"
that the Post should criticize the regime "at a time when the entire
world is
focusing on the President's moment of reckoning."
The Post's coverage of Burma is usually quite good and occasionally
extensive, as for example it was last February when it devoted an
entire page
to an article exposing the Washington lobbyists hired by the regime's
Embassy
in apparent violation of the Foreign Agent Registration Act. [Burma's
Image
Problem Is a Moneymaker for U.S. Lobbyists, Feb. 24, 1998, A19.]
It seems, however, to have escaped the Ambassador's attention that most
Americans believe their media already spends too much time covering
Lewinsky
matter and most Washingtonians are probably grateful that the Post,
which
only two days ago printed the entire 492 page text of the Starr report,
can
also manage "an entire editorial column" about some subject other than
the
Lewinsky matter.
One item in the Embassy's statement illustrates its general non-sensical
reasoning. The Embassy states that the regime defaulted on its World
Bank
debt as a political decision because it is upset that the United States
is
blocking further lending: "In the circumstance, the Myanmar Government
took
a decision to postpone repayment on outstanding loans until the World
Bank
treats Myanmar like other members and resumes lending." However, in
the very
next sentence, the Embassy seems to be promising that the check will be
in
the mail shortly: "The amounts involved are not significant and
Myanmar
hopes to resume the payments sooner rather than later"
The Embassy's unsigned statement claims that the regime is not
responsible
for losing the 1990 election and then stealing it, nor for
systematically
imposing the forced labor which the International Labor Organization
says is
going on in the country, nor for the ruining the economic it
monopolizes, nor
for defaulting on the money it owes to the World Bank and is not even
responsible for arresting the people who are in its jails. It is both
ironic
and appropriate that no one at the regime's Embassy would take
responsibility
for signing the statement which disclaims responsibility for so much else.
Sincerely,
(Signed by)
(Bo Hla-Tint)
Minister for North and South American Affairs
National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma
815 Fifteenth Street, NW, Suite 910
Washington, DC 20005
Tel: (202) 393 7342
Fax: (202) 393 7343