SLORC plunges Myanmar into darkness

An ongoing anti-opposition crackdown in Myanmar has resulted in the arrest of National League for Democracy (NLD) politicians around the country.

Opposition officials say more arrests are being conducted by the hour as the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) tries to stop the first meeting of elected NLD representatives in years, which is scheduled to take place during the sixth anniversary of the 1990 general election that falls on Sunday.

The will of the Myanmarese people was obviously expressed in the 1990 election when the NLD won a landslide victory. The SLORC, however, disregarded the result.

To prevent the transfer of power to the duly-elected government, it convened a so-called National Convention to frame a state constitution based on principles guaranteeing the perpetuation of military dictatorship in Myanmar.

Sunday's meeting will see more than 400 NLD representatives gathered in Yangon -- the biggest gathering since they were elected and the most provocative opposition act since Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest 10 months ago.

Speaking to Radio Australia's Bangkok correspondent from Suu Kyi's Rangoon compound, her chief spokesman U win Htein, before he was arrested yesterday, confirmed that NLD representatives and some of their wives had been detained or placed under house arrest.

Others are now under constant surveillance. Win Htein said no one had been charged, but added the arrests were aimed at preventing delegates from attending the meeting.

The will of the NLD has certainly not been broken and the crackdown, in fact, has given them further resolve to carry on fighting for justice, human rights and democracy.

The United States has already lodged strong protests to the military junta, expressing strong concern over the fate of the pro-democracy activists.

Other countries too should follow Washington's example because the SLORC butchers should be condemned for their actions.

The SLORC has reneged on promises made to the international community and the arrests of the NLD members has set things backward in the country.

ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), being the immediate neighbors of Myanmar, must realize this. Unless and until the SLORC releases all those arrested over the past few days, as well as all political prisoners, ASEAN has no business coddling these monsters in army uniforms.

For Myanmar to be welcomed into the regional grouping now is a blow to all freedom-loving people in Southeast Asia.

-- The Bangkok Post

;JP;HPR; ANPAk..r.. Other-Iraq-Ahram, The Iraq oil deal JP/4/OTHER4

The Iraq oil deal

Iraq's signing of the oil-for-food deal seems to have the international community grinning from ear to ear.

The U.S. delegate to the United Nations, Madeleine Albright, heralded it as "an excellent day for the people of the Iraq, who have not been able to get the requisite amount of food and medicine because of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's priorities".

Perhaps so, but just days before the agreement was signed, the United States and Britain attempted to intervene in the negotiations, arguing that the accord offered Hussein loopholes through which he could redirect funds away from humanitarian relief into the military. So why the sudden change of face?

One would hope that Iraq's post-sanction 40 percent infant mortality rate would have played a major role in the decision. One would also hope that the reason is that six years of vise- like economic sanctions have done nothing more than leave the Iraqi population in a stranglehold.

Topping the list of reasons for the U.S. about-face is the fact that high oil prices have become a heated campaign issue plaguing U.S. President Bill Clinton in his bid for re-election.

Providing more incentive was a part of the agreement dictating that the UN will distribute supplies to the Iraqi Kurds, bitter opponents of Hussein's regime.

The simple truth of the matter, however, is that the sanctions did not work.

It may have taken the world six years to stumble upon the realization that sanctions will fail where negotiations will succeed, but for the Iraqi population, it was a lesson learned all too quickly and painfully.

-- al-Ahram Weekly, Cairo