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NEWS - Downer sees ``long hard road



Subject: NEWS - Downer sees ``long hard road'' to Myanmar democracy

NOTE: Does Anyone want to comment or question Surin Pitsuwan and Downer
about their answers?


Downer sees ``long hard road'' to Myanmar democracy

By David Brunnstrom

  
NAKORN SI THAMMARAT, Thailand, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Australia said on
Wednesday it would be tough work encouraging democracy and human rights
in Myanmar, adding that real political change was needed for it to win
international aid. 

Asked if he was optimistic about progress in Myanmar after Yangon said
it would invite World Bank officials back despite a highly critical
report from the institution, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer replied:
``I think it's going to be a long hard road.'' 

Speaking at a bilateral ministerial meeting in Thailand, Downer
suggested too much had been made in news reports about the Myanmar
government's apparently conciliatory response to the World Bank report
leaked to the International Herald Tribune newspaper last week. 

``I think I would like to see more information before I drew any hard
and fast conclusions on how they were going to respond to the World Bank
and what the World Bank was going to do,'' he told reporters. 

``I would like to feel that as political reforms really took place in
Burma, it would be possible for organisations like the World Bank to
help with economic development. I am sure that would be very much the
view of (World Bank president) James Wolfensohn and the World Bank in
general.'' 

The World Bank told Myanmar's ruling generals in a confidential report
that they must carry out major political and human rights reforms to
achieve prosperity on a par with neighbouring countries, the
International Herald Tribune reported last week. 

The draft of a 109-page World Bank report on Myanmar was distributed
secretly to top generals in the ruling military council and opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi and reflected a World Bank-U.N. initiative to
break their political deadlock. 

Myanmar had no comment to make on the report, but said it would invite
World Bank officials in again to the country for further consultations. 

AUSTRALIAN VISIT JUSTIFIED 

Downer defended a decision to send Australia's top human rights official
to Myanmar this year to discuss setting up a rights commission there, a
move criticised by Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's beleaguered
opposition. 

``It wasn't misdirected, it was the right thing to do. It's an ongoing
process that we are discussing with the Burmese. We want to see an
improvement in human rights in Burma. We are not prepared to stand back
and do nothing about it.'' 

Myanmar had recently asked Australia about international rights norms.
``They are interested in getting information on human rights standards
and we're obviously enthusiastic about them improving their record on
human rights,'' he said. 

Myanmar's generals have been widely condemned for rights abuses since
killing thousands to crush a pro-democracy rising in 1988 and ignoring
the result of the last general election in 1990 when Suu Kyi's National
league for Democracy won by a landslide. 

Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan also defended his country's efforts
to maintain good relations with Myanmar, which it helped join the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations, now a 10-member bloc, in 1997. 

Asked when he thought such efforts would bear fruit, he said: 

``I think it will take time and we are still working on it.'' 

04:58 11-17-99