Letter to the Editor, Washington Po

[ncgrep1@xxxxxxx]

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