The Japan Times: Obuchi will talk t

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Subject: The Japan Times: Obuchi will talk to Myanmar leader

Obuchi Will talk to Myanmar Leader

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi plans to meet with the leader of Myanmar's
military junta on the sidelines of a Nov. 28 Asian summit in Manila,
Japanese government sources said Friday.

The summit will bring together the leaders of the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations plus China, Japan and South Korea.

Tokyo is now making final arrangements for the meeting with Gen. Than Shwe,
prime minister and chairman of the State Peace and Development Council, the
sources said.

The meeting would be the first between a Japanese prime minister and a
leader of the junta, which seized power in 1988.

Obuchi reportedly has yet to decide whether to include Myanmar in a new
initiative, expected to be announced at the summit, to facilitate the flow
of "people, money, goods and information" between Japan and other Asian
nations to help revitalize Asian economies.

With the announcement, Tokyo has shown it is assuming a policy of
"constructive engagement" with the junta. And it comes only days after
Myanmar's military rulers said they are open to a dialogue with the World
Bank, which recently issued a blistering report on the state of the
country's economy.

It also comes as ASEAN members are divided on how to move the grouping
forward in a quickly globalizing world. At an ASEAN foreign ministers
meeting in July last year Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan suggested
that the group consider easing its policy of noninterference in member
countries' internal affairs.

Surin got support only from the Philippines, and the proposal failed to
change ASEAN's basic noninterference stance.

But the democratic reforms in Indonesia and the recent election of
President Aburrahman Wahid has changed the region's political makeup.

All of which could lead other ASEAN members into Surin's camp from where
they could encourage democratization in Myanmar.

Obuchi appears to be stepping in that direction. He is expected to press
for economic and political reforms in Myanmar and to urge the junta to
promote dialogue with the National League for Democracy, a prodemocracy
force led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi that was the
overwhelming choice of voters in 1988 elections.

The NLD won 392 seats out of 485 in the 1990 general elections, but the
junta insisted that a new constitution is necessary before transferring
power to a new government.

Out of the 485 candidates elected in 1990, only 176 remained as of the end
of October, according to official Election Commission records.

The rest have died, resigned or been disqualified by the junta. Most of
those disqualified are either in prison or out of the country.

But there are signs the junta may be taking a new direction.

In Yangon, one military leader recently hinted at the junta's readiness to
transfer power to a government that will emerge after a new constitution is
completed and adopted by a new parliament, according to news reports.

Government newspapers quoted Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt as saying, "The military
has no intention of holding power for a long time."

But Khin Nyunt, the first secretary of the State Peace and Development
Council, said any move toward democracy would take time because of "special
circumstances" in Myanmar. He did not elaborate.

He made the comment while speaking Thursday at the Foreign Ministry.

"Some Western countries are pressuring us for not establishing a democratic
system immediately, (but) they should realize we have the common objective
of establishing a democratic system in Myanmar," he told Myanmar diplomats
who were attending a course in diplomacy.

No formal talks between Japan and Myanmar have been held so far, although
then Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto exchanged some words with Gen. Than
Shwe when they sat next to each other at a dinner in the 1997 ASEAN summit.

Myanmar was admitted in 1997 as a full member to ASEAN, which also
comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.


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