Myanmar’s military government on Monday accused the United States and its allies of ”blind and prejudiced meddling” in the country’s internal affairs.
In its latest broadside against US support for democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi, state-controlled media said efforts to influence political events in Myanmar were only causing harm to the people.
”The attempts to pave the way for their minions to seize power will further lead to escalation of internal tensions of the victimised country and also create much suffering for the people,” said an editorial in the government-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper.
”This blind and prejudiced meddling in Myanmar’s home affairs, supporting one side while opposing the other by America and its west European allies have adversely affected the nation’s internal stability,” it said.
The US and other Western powers have increased the volume of their criticism of Myanmar’s ruling junta since May 30, when a violent clash between Suu Kyi’s supporters and an armed, junta-backed mob in northern Myanmar led to her arrest and a new round of repression against her National League for Democracy.
The American government has demanded the immediate release of Suu Kyi from detention and the speedy implementation of reforms leading to democratic rule in the country, which has been led by a succession of military governments since 1962.
The latest setback to Myanmar’s democracy movement has prompted some Western leaders to call for a tightening of economic sanctions against the junta.
More economic sanctions against Myanmar will backfire and hurt the people they were meant to benefit, warned the junta commentary.
”It will be totally wrong to assume that poverty, hunger and hardship will cause unrest in the name of democracy in Myanmar today,” it said.
”Because a community that suffers from economic hardship and poverty lacks discipline and knowledge, and less ability to distinguish between right and wrong and this can give rise to anarchy and the establishment of a ‘mobocracy’ ruled by gangsters.
”In such a state of affairs there will be no other option but a military coup. If such were the situation there would follow an endless cycle of military coups with military rule leaving the house by the front door and entering it again from the window.” – Sapa-DPA