Myanmar junta decries western consp

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Myanmar junta decries western conspiracy as Britain plans to get tough

Mon 05 Oct 98 - 11:03 GMT 

YANGON, Oct 5 (AFP) - Myanmar's state press said Monday the country was a
victim of western conspiracies as British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook
prepared to advocate tougher economic sanctions against the junta here.

The junta's media mouthpiece, the New Light of Myanmar newspaper, said the
west was conspiring to "station military bases around the world" and divide
ethnic minority groups in Myanmar.

An article in the English-language newspaper also accused the opposition
National League for Democracy (NLD) party of being an agent of the west and
harboring "evil intentions" to disrupt the drafting of a constitution.

The paper carried a cartoon depicting NLD leader and Nobel Peace laureate Aung
San Suu Kyi being manipulated by top-hat wearing English and American
puppeteers. A poem in the paper called her an "upside down bat."

The article said the NLD boycotted the constitution drafting National
Convention in 1995 in sympathy with western powers who were unhappy with a
proposal to ban any foreign military presence in the country.

"The west bloc does not like that principle because the neo-colonialists
wishing to practise hegmonism (hegemony) in the world feels (it) runs counter
to its programme to station military bases around the world," it said.

"They (the west and the NLD) want to divide the Union into different parts.
They will keep the national races fighting.

"They will make sure that the western style democracy flourishes in the
country and takes control of Myanmar to suit their taste through (Aung San Suu
Kyi)."

The comments came as Cook was due to meet with his European Unioncounterparts
in Luxembourg Monday to argue for a tightening of sanctions against the
military state.

Britain's expected move follows Myanmar's rejection of an EU proposal to send
senior officials for talks with the junta and Aung San Suu Kyi.

"The Burmese basically said, 'Get lost,' which strengthens the argument of
those countries that want to see the sanctions toughened up", said a senior EU
diplomat last week.

London is proposing that other EU governments formally adopt its policy of
discouraging tour operators from offering holidays in Myanmar, while calling
for an extension of a visa-ban on junta members to cover lower ranking
officials.

No decision on these issues will be taken on Monday but Britain is hoping it
can influence the debate when the ministers meet on October 26 to review the
EU's two-year-old sanctions against the junta.

The junta regularly attacks Aung San Suu Kyi -- daughter of the country's
independence hero Aung San -- for marrying a Briton, saying she has betrayed
her race and disqualified herself as a political candidate.

It has also said the NLD's planned convention of parliament is illegal and
based on the forged approval of bogus MPs. The NLD won a landslide victory in
1990 elections but the parliament has never been allowed to sit.

The NLD has claimed the support of the country's disparate ethnic minorities
as well as more than half of the 485 MPs elected.

But the state press on Monday said that after deaths, dismissals and
resignations, only 226 MPs elected in 1990 were elligible to sit.

The NLD has said the military has arrested 967 of its members since May. It
says 203 of those arrested are members of parliament.

The junta has denied arresting anyone, saying NLD members had merely been
"invited" for political discussions.

The United States, Canada and the EU have already enacted economic sanctions
and boycotts to pressure Yangon on human rights.

But Myanmar told the United Nations last month not to push for democratic
reforms in the country.

"Political pressure has been put on us by those who would like us to adopt not
only democracy, but would like also to transplant a democracy in their own
mold," Foreign Minister Ohn Gyaw told the General Assembly.

©AFP 1998

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