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DAM-L Salween River Dam/Burmese dissidents ask Japan not to help junta
Kyodo News: Myanmar dissidents ask Japan not to help junta
Tokyo Aug 8, 2000.
A group of Myanmar dissidents on Tuesday asked the Japanese government
to "cease all aid" to Myanmar and urge Japanese companies not to invest
there until the military junta hands over power to elected
parliamentarians.
About 50 Myanmar dissidents staged a rally in front of the Foreign
Ministry in Tokyo to mark the 12th anniversary of the junta's
suppression of a pro-democracy uprising. They said similar protests were
planned Tuesday at Japanese embassies around the world.
The protesters sumitted a statement to the ministry calling for Japan to
end all financial support for Myanmr. The statement also accused Tokyo
of "overtly trying to resume help" to the junta folowing its suspension
of official development assistance (ODA) to Myanmar in 1988.
They also asked Japan to withdraw its financial support for the Salween
River dam project in their country, to release detained political asylum
seekers, and to investigate a case in which they said two Myanmar
dissidents were beaten by Myanmar officials at a junta-sponsored concert
in Tokyo in 1999.
Japanese officials attending a two-day workshop in Yangon in late June
on Japanese support for economic reforms in Myanmar, reportedly said
they were considering resuming ODA to the country as part of
humanitarian assistance to countries surrounding the Mekong River.
The forum, comprising government, industry and university delegates from
the two sides, reportedly plans to agree at its next meeting this fall
in Tokyo on specific short-term targets for Myanmar's reforms and to
hammer out technical assistance measures that Japan may take.