*EPF204 07/01/2003
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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