Soros denies role in SE Asia currency snag

Soros denies role in SE Asia currency snag

KUALA LUMPUR (AP): Billionaire George Soros, well known for
his speculative plays in global currency markets, denies that he
is to blame for Southeast Asia's recent currency problems.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad accused the U.S.
financier of orchestrating currency attacks to punish the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations for extending membership
to Myanmar, where a military dictatorship has repressed civil
liberties.

ASEAN is due to admit Myanmar on Wednesday.

Mahathir didn't identify Soros by name, but it was clear that
he was the target of the comments.

Soros said Tuesday through a spokesman that his Soros
Foundations and Open Society Institute, philanthropic groups that
have sought to promote democratic government in Myanmar and
elsewhere, are distinct from Soros Fund Management, his
investment group.

"There is absolutely no connection," said Shawn Pattison, a
Soros spokesman at his offices in New York.

The Open Society Institute finances the Burma Project, a 3-
year-old operation that seeks to publicize human-rights abuses in
Burma and support opposition groups.

"I can see how the misunderstanding may have arisen here as
Mr. Soros has been quite vocal in his urging the governments of
Thailand and Malaysia not to admit Myanmar into ASEAN," Pattison
said. "He continues to consider totalitarian repressive regimes
threats to the region's prosperity and stability."

Mahathir made the accusation to Malaysian journalists Tuesday
after returning from a trip to Japan, where he also alluded to
Soros as the culprit in the currency troubles.

The currencies of Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Indonesia and Singapore have fallen sharply in speculative waves
of selling that have raised anxiety about the region's overall
financial stability.

"Freedom of speculation had become a political weapon which
has given power to a rich person who had forced independent
nations to bow to him," the Bernama news agency quoted Mahathir
as saying.

"We like free trade, but if freedom here is misused until the
poor become poorer because this person wants to have a crusade
for charity, this means that he robs from the poor to show that
he is charitable," Mahathir said.

Mahathir isn't the first in Asia to blame Soros for the
currency problem. The Thai press mentioned him as a force behind
last month's speculative attack on the baht, which Soros also
denied.

Myanmar's admission to ASEAN is opposed by the U.S.
government, European nations and many private organizations who
say the Burmese government should be ostracized.

Soros attained global renown for attacks that forced the
British pound out of the European Monetary System in 1992. His
purchases and sales of currencies are closely followed in the
foreign-exchange market.