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CARROTS AND STICKS



Carrots and Sticks
The Washington Post; Washington, D.C.; Nov 30, 1998; 

Sub Title: 
          [FINAL Edition]
Start Page: 
          A24
ISSN: 
          01908286

Abstract:
THERE IS TOUGH competition for the title, but perhaps no authoritarian
regime in the world
today is more brutal and benighted than the military dictatorship of Burma.
That Southeast
Asian nation has been condemned to live in poverty and fear by the thuggish,
drug-tainted,
corrupt generals who wield power. The United Nations General Assembly
recently adopted a
resolution that gives some sense of the scope of human rights abuse in Burma
-- including
"extrajudicial and arbitrary executions, rape, torture, inhuman treatment,
mass arrests,
forced labor, forced relocation and denial of freedom of expression,
assembly, association and
movement."

Full Text:
Copyright The Washington Post Company Nov 30, 1998


THERE IS TOUGH competition for the title, but perhaps no authoritarian
regime in the world today is
more brutal and benighted than the military dictatorship of Burma. That
Southeast Asian nation has been
condemned to live in poverty and fear by the thuggish, drug-tainted, corrupt
generals who wield power.
The United Nations General Assembly recently adopted a resolution that gives
some sense of the scope of
human rights abuse in Burma -- including "extrajudicial and arbitrary
executions, rape, torture, inhuman
treatment, mass arrests, forced labor, forced relocation and denial of
freedom of expression, assembly,
association and movement."

Burma's plight is all the more tragic because, unlike many nations that have
lived long under dictatorship, it
has a ready alternative. Aung San Suu Kyi, daughter of Burma's hero of
post-colonial independence and
herself a Nobel Peace laureate, heads a political party that overwhelmingly
won an election in 1990.
Reflecting just how out of touch they are with those they rule, the generals
allowed the vote to take place
thinking that they could maintain control. When Burma's voters had other
ideas, the generals refused to
honor the results. Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest pretty much
ever since.

This fall the dictatorship has turned the screws even tighter. Since
September, according to Ambassador
Betty King, the U.S. representative to the U.N. Economic and Social Council,
nearly 1,000 opposition
figures from Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy and other
parties have been detained.
The junta claimed that these people were not being arrested but rather
invited in to chat. But hundreds
have been forced to resign from opposition parties as a condition for
release. Hundreds more, including
81-year-old Saw Mra Aung, remain in jail. Others, such as democracy leader U
Aung Min, have died in
custody.

Now the United Nations and World Bank have floated the possibility of
inducing the dictators to behave
better by offering them "carrots" such as $1 billion or more in loans if
they enter a dialogue with Aung San
Suu Kyi. Shunned until now by private investors and most aid donors, the
junta could use the cash (much
of which would come, through the World Bank, from the U.S. government). The
idea, according to an
account Thursday in the International Herald Tribune, is to call for
"step-by-step compromises from both
the government and the opposition."

That description tells you the pitfalls of the plan. What "compromises"
should be induced from an
opposition that is the legitimate government but has been severely repressed
for most of a decade? How
freely can a leader negotiate when she is forcibly isolated from family and
advisers, threatened with exile,
vilified in the official press and made to feel responsible for hundreds of
supporters at risk in prison?

Burma is the world's chief source of heroin. Its officials tolerate and
profit from drug trafficking. A top
State Department official recently said there is no point in spending
anti-drug money in Burma. "We have
not found them to be reliable partners," Jonathan Winer said.

The same would be true of economic aid on a larger scale. Under a legitimate
and democratic government,
Burma wouldn't need much World Bank help; the country is blessed with
abundant natural resources and a
literate, hard-working population of 46 million. Under the current rulers,
any loans will further enrich the
corrupt few. Long at the trough, they don't need any carrots from U.S.
taxpayers.