Japan and the United Kingdom this week intensified the global diplomatic pressure on Myanmar to free the detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi as the military junta dismissed British accusations that she is being held in the nation’s most notorious prison.
Japan, the largest donor to the repressed nation, announced it was freezing all financial aid to Myanmar, while British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the British government had made ”the strongest possible representations” on behalf of Suu Kyi.
Suu Kyi was detained on May 30 along with more than a dozen of her National League for Democracy supporters after her motorcade was attacked by pro-government thugs.
Japan decided to cut aid after Deputy Foreign Minister Tetsuro Yano returned from Rangoon on Monday, having failed to secure the release of the leader whose party won the last general election in Myanmar, in 1990, but who has never been allowed to govern.
”First … we want the early release of Suu Kyi. Under the current circumstances we will not extend economic assistance,” a Japanese official said.
Data from Japan’s Foreign Ministry says the country gave Myanmar $71-million in grants in the five years to March 2003, technological assistance worth $56-million in the four years to March 2002, and debt relief worth $9,5-million in the past five years.
Blair used more aggressive language about the Burmese junta than he has in years. ”We’ve made the strongest possible representations, not merely in respect of the release of the leader of the opposition but also on the restoration of proper human and democratic rights,” he said. — Â