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Junta welcomes Japanese diplomacy
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Junta welcomes Japanese diplomacy</font></b><font size=3 color="#000000">
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</font><font face="Helvetica, Helvetica"><b>ASSOCIATED PRESS in
Rangoon</font></b> <br>
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On a second diplomatic front, Japan won praise yesterday from Burma's
junta for breaking ranks with the West and trying out a new diplomatic
initiative aimed at reviving the country's flagging economy. <br>
"The Japanese Government as well as financial institutions want to
assist us, but the Americans have been pressuring them not to,"
Brigadier General David Abel said. <br>
"The West has been pointing out that if we have political reforms,
or if we do what they want, they will assist Myanmar [Burma],"
Brigadier Abel said. "We don't do what the big powers tell us
to." <br>
Brigadier Abel, the Government's leading economics official, was speaking
on the third day of a private visit led by former Japanese premier
Ryutaro Hashimoto and a delegation of former diplomats, economists and
aid experts. <br>
The visit follows Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi's meeting on Sunday with
junta chairman Senior General Than Shwe on the sidelines of an
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit in Manila. <br>
The meeting was the first between a leader from Burma and the leader of a
major country since troops crushed protests against military rule in
1988. <br>
Japanese officials said Tokyo hoped to encourage the military - which has
been in power since 1962 - to implement economic and political reforms.
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The United States and European Union have imposed sanctions on Burma and
demand that the generals start a dialogue with opposition leader Aung San
Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel Peace laureate. Her party won elections in 1990,
but the military never allowed parliament to meet. <br>
The Japanese have indicated they are ready to resume some aid if moves
toward democracy are made. <br>
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SCMP<br>
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