Japan's Myanmar refugees rally

http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/SE%2BAsia/Story/STIStory_357822.html

April 2, 2009

TOKYO - SEVERAL dozen Myanmar protesters rallied outside Japan's foreign ministry on Thursday, calling on Tokyo to freeze all aid to their country's military regime.
Some 30 asylum seekers from the isolated Southeast Asian country also known as Burma chanted slogans against the junta and held a banner that read: 'The Japanese government must stop supporting the Burma Army Regime.'

Myanmar's ruling generals say they plan to hold elections next year under a constitution approved last year, but critics have called the vote a sham designed to entrench the junta's rule.

'Japan, stop supporting the 2010 election!' the Myanmar nationals chanted, waving photographs of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner under house arrest in the capital, Yangon.

Myanmar has been ruled since 1962 by the military, which ignored a 1990 landslide win by Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy and has been condemned for widespread human rights abuses.



'I want the Japanese government to condemn the military junta and completely suspend all of its foreign aid,' said rally leader Myint Swe, 28.

'If they keep offering aid, even if it's some funding for training purposes, it may end up being misused by the corrupt regime.'

Japan in 2003 suspended most of its assistance to Myanmar other than emergency aid and some training funds, and it cut its assistance further after the regime cracked down on pro-democracy demonstrations in 2007.

But Japan refuses to join Western allies in slapping sanctions on Myanmar.

China, which often spars with Japan for influence, is Myanmar's main political and commercial partner. -- AFP