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UPI 5/27 #2



Suu Kyi opposes Japanese loans to Burma
        
        TOKYO, May 27 (UPI) - Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi said
        Japan could play a key role in Burma's move to democracy, but she
        wants Tokyo to continue withholding loans to Burma's ruling junta,
        Japan's Kyodo News reported Monday.
        
           "Japan is one of Burma's aid countries. And that is why it is
        important," Kyodo quoted Suu Kyi as saying.
        
           Japan's foreign ministry said it has suspended loans on six
        ongoing infrastructure projects since a 1988 military coup, and has
        since Suu Kyi's release given grants only for debt relief, non-
        governmental organizations, and schools for medical nurses.
        
           Nobel prize winner Suu Kyi noted that the junta appears ready to
        listen, although reluctantly, to what Japan has to say about the
        state of affairs in Burma, Kyodo reported.
        
           Japan was ahead of the United States and other countries in
        resuming aid to Burma in the wake of Suu Kyi's release from house
        arrest in July last year.
        
           Since that date, Japan has given Myanmar 1.6 billion yen ($14.8
        million) in grants for a nurse training project, the Kyodo report
        said.
        
           Japan's ambassador to Burma Yoichi Yamaguchi met with Suu Kyi
        earlier this month on May 17 and May 20, just prior to recent mass
        arrests of members of the National League for Democracy elected in
        1990 elections as well as other activists, Kyodo reported.
        
           NLD sources said Suu Kyi asked the envoy to convey to the junta
        some of the democracy movement's requests, Kyodo reported.
          
        Copyright 1996 United Press International. All rights reserved.