Don't push Myanmar back into isolation: FM

Don't push Myanmar back into isolation: FM

Agence France-Presse, Singapore/Bangkok

The international community should avoid pushing back Myanmar
into isolation by imposing or threatening to implement sanctions,
the country's foreign minister said in a commentary published in
Singapore on Friday.

"Threats and imposition of sanctions are counter-productive,"
Foreign Minister Win Aung said in the article published in
Singapore's Straits Times newspaper.

"Sanctions are blunt weapons. They do more harm than good. For
many years now, all forms of development assistance have been
denied Myanmar by international finance institutions."

He added: "It is one thing to criticize and adopt sanctions.
It is quite another to ensure that 52 million people are well-
fed, well-clothed and well-sheltered."

The army-ruled Southeast Asian nation has come under
international pressure to release democracy leader Aung San Suu
Kyi, who was arrested in May after a pro-government mob attacked
her supporters during a political tour north of the capital
Yangon.

Myanmar's ruling junta has accused the democracy activists of
inciting the clashes, saying Suu Kyi had been temporarily
detained for her own safety.

But Myanmar's fellow members of the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations and the international community have demanded the
release of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, which is seen as key
to the resumption of talks toward national reconciliation.

Both Canada and the European Union have imposed tighter
sanctions on Myanmar, while the country's largest donor Japan has
suspended new economic aid.

The U.S. Senate earlier this month approved legislation
imposing sanctions on Myanmar's ruling generals.

But Win Aung in his article argued that the blame for the
failure of national reconciliation talks should not be put
entirely on the government.

"The problem involving Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is but one of
many. If there exists sincere goodwill on all sides, the problems
of the country can be satisfactorily resolved. It needs two to
tango," he wrote.

Myanmar, under the current government, has signed peace
agreements with 17 armed groups in the country but still faces
other insurgencies.

In addition, it also needs to alleviate poverty, restructure
the economy and write a new constitution, among others, as it
comes out of a self-imposed isolation by the previous socialist
government.

"Why push Myanmar back into the shell from which it has
emerged?" Win Aung said.

On Thursday, foreign ministers from Europe and Asia meeting on
the Indonesian island of Bali demanded the immediate release of
Suu Kyi.

They also called upon Yangon "to resume its efforts toward
national reconciliation and democracy" in a statement issued
after the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), whose 10 Asian members do
not include Myanmar.

Separately, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said on
Friday that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
leaders must address the political deadlock in Myanmar in order
to strengthen the grouping.

"This is the issue that we have to tackle among ASEAN leaders
in order to strengthen ASEAN. When ASEAN is strong it will
benefit everybody," he told reporters.

Thaksin on Thursday offered to act as a mediator in the
crisis.

Thaksin will this weekend hold talks with Malaysian Prime
Minister Mohamad Mahathir which will focus on the political
tensions in Myanmar.