01 July 2003
Senator McConnell Hails Japan's Suspension of Aid to Burma
(McConnell also urges House to pass Burma sanctions bill) (600)
By Stephen La Rocque
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- The second most powerful Republican in the Senate hailed
a recent decision by the Government of Japan to suspend new
development aid to Burma until the ruling military junta releases
democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi.
"This is a positive first step, but this is not enough," Senate Deputy
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Republican of Kentucky) said in
remarks to the Senate June 27.
"There is much more that needs to be done here in Congress, and at the
White House, by Japan, ASEAN, the European Union, and by Secretary
General Kofi Annan and the United Nations Security Council to ensure
that the thugs now ruling Burma are one day soon consigned to the ash
heap of history," he said.
The senator called on the House of Representatives to pass the Burmese
Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003 as soon as possible. The Senate
approved its version of the bill June 11.
According to McConnell, the legislation "prohibits the importation of
all products from Burma, freezes the assets of Burma's ruling thugs
and their political arm, bans travel to the United States for the
junta's political and military leadership, and provides assistance for
democracy activists inside the country."
McConnell stressed that the situation in Burma must change.
Misrule by the military junta in Rangoon has negatively affected
diplomatic efforts in the region, the senator said. He cited the
recent visit to the United States by the Thai Prime Minister, during
which the issue of Burmese atrocities displaced discussions about Thai
national security issues. McConnell also noted that at the June
meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum in Phnom Penh, "the discussions
centered not on fighting HIV/AIDS or improving regional economic
development but on the arrest of Suu Kyi and the murder of National
League for Democracy political activists."
Misrule in Rangoon "distracts ASEAN from other important issues," he
said. The junta in Rangoon "is pulling down the region, and it is time
that its neighbors owned up to their responsibility in fixing this
problem once and for all."
McConnell said that constructive engagement for Japan and the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has "done nothing to
improve the political, economic, or social situation" in Burma, where
the military junta hold sway.
"The ASEAN policy of noninterference will not stand," he said.
The senator cautioned that until countries in the region confront the
military junta and demonstrate "backbone in the face of corrupt
despotism, they will find the United States a less willing negotiating
partner."
McConnell said the transfer of power in Burma from the junta to the
democratically elected government that won the elections in 1990 would
"provide peace, stability, and the opportunity for enhanced regional
economic growth."
Burma's transition to a democratically elected government should be
the goal of its neighbors, not merely the release of and an end to the
continued harassment of Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi
and her supporters, he said.
The Kentucky Republican said the junta had put "the final nail into
the coffin of constructive engagement when it signaled its hostility
to political dialogue and national reconciliation on May 30 by
arresting Suu Kyi and murdering Burmese democrats."
"We must encourage Burma's neighbors to use their considerable
influence to make clear to the military regime that they, too, find
the political situation intolerable," McConnell said.
"The path now is clear: isolate the vile thugs who rule this country,"
McConnell said.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site:
http://usinfo.state.gov)
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