Myanmar Government In Exile Not Seeking Economic Sanction

Bernama: 23 July, 2006

KUALA LUMPUR: The Myanmar national coalition government-in-exile is not seeking economic sanctions against the country, its Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, Bo Hla-Tint, said Sunday.

He said that whatever resolution to be imposed by the powerful United Nations (UN) Security Council should be "mild" and should not affect the ordinary Myanmars who continued to suffer for more than 50 years under the military junta rule.

"The end result (of any UNSC resolution) must be towards making the junta embark on national reconciliation, democratisation and national dialogue," he told Bernama here.

Bo Hla-Tint, who is also chairman of the finance committee of the government-in-exile, said that any decision towards imposing economic sanctions would only backfire as China and Russia, considered to have close economic ties with Yangon, would not support such resolution.

"We are not going for revenge but always for national reconciliation. We are always willing to work with the SPDC (State Peace and Development Council, Myanmar's military government) in the interest of our people," said Bo Hla-Tint who is here for the two-day Asean Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC) Conference on "Myanmar and Democracies in Transition" which ended yesterday.

He said his government-in-exile was working closely with the United States to ensure that any resolution on Myanmar would be a mild one so that it would be effective in finding an acceptable solution to all parties concerned.

He said that since 1991, 28 resolutions on the Myanmar issue had been passed by the UN and the UN Commission on Human Rights, but they had had no effect on the military junta.

The Myanmar government has come under heavy criticism for years due to its failure to introduce democratic reforms and restore human rights and release political detainees, especially Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Many countries have called for Myanmar to be put on the UN Security Council agenda and Bo Hla-Tint hoped that it would be done in November when Britain chairs the rotating 15-member Security council.

"Since 2003, we have been urging the UN Security Council to take action on the Myanmar issue and it should be a binding action," said Bo Hla Tint who is based in the United States.