BURMESE rally urges tougher line from new Japan govt

Agence France Presse: Myanmar rally urges tougher line from new Japan govt
Fri 18 Sep 2009
Filed under: International
Myanmar activists Friday called on Japan’s new government to take a tougher stance on the military junta as they rallied in Tokyo on the 21st anniversary of the coup that brought the regime to power.

Some 100 demonstrators rallied outside the Myanmar Embassy demanding the release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners being held in the country formerly known as Burma.

“We want the new government to apply pressure on the military regime through harsher sanctions and to push for the release of Suu Kyi,” said one of the protestors, Win Myint.

Many carried pictures of Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate who has spent most of the past two decades under house arrest since her party won the last elections.

Japan’s new centre-left Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who took power on Wednesday, is known for his interest in human rights and has in the past led a group of parliamentarians that support Suu Kyi.

Japan’s previous conservative government of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) “did not show a clear stance toward the military junta and therefore did not apply sufficient pressure,” said another protester, Haw Thar.

The LDP, which ruled Japan almost without break since 1955, promoted trade and dialogue with Myanmar, fearing a hard line would push the junta further into the clasps of China, its main political and economic partner.

New-York based Human Rights Watch called on Japan to undertake an urgent policy review on Myanmar and to consider supporting targeted sanctions.

“Now is the time for Japan to revise its foreign policy and make promotion of human rights a central pillar,” wrote director Kenneth Roth in a letter to new Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada. “Burma is a very good place to start.”