Myanmar Says Never Yields to Pressure, Intimidation

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, July 31, 2003

Myanmar Says Never Yields to Pressure, Intimidation

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The Myanmar government made its first official response Wednesday to the new sanctions imposed on the country by the United States, saying its people have never yielded to pressure and intimidation and will never do so.

US President George W. Bush signed on Tuesday a bill imposing sanctions on Myanmar to punish its government for the continued detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi (ASSK). The legislation of the sanctions, which include banning imports from Myanmar and freezing the military government's assets in the United States, was overwhelmingly approved earlier by the US Congress.

The sanctions also expand the current ban on granting US visas to Myanmar leaders and codify existing policy that opposes new international loans or technical aid to the nation.

A statement of the Myanmar Foreign Ministry on Wednesday said the country regrets over the decision of the US government to approve the new sanctions which it said will in no way be helpful to the relations between the two countries nor will it contribute to Myanmar's efforts for consolidating national reconciliation andbuilding a democratic society.

Commenting that sanctions and embargoes do not work, the statement warned that they only hurt the ordinary people and are deemed as being counter-productive.

Myanmar is committed to the path of national reconciliation and democracy and is determined to build a peaceful, modern and developed nation, the statement said.

The tightening of sanctions against Myanmar by the US government came after Yangon arrested ASSK, general secretary of the National League for Democracy (NLD), and put her in a secret location on account of the May 30 incident, in which ASSK's convoywas reportedly ambushed by government supporters when she was making a political trip in the north of the country. The government claimed that four people were killed and 48 others injured in the bloody clashes between NLD supporters and pro-government protesters.

Since then, the international community, including the United Nations, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the United States, the European Union (EU), Canada and Japan, has beenurging the Myanmar military regime to immediately release ASSK. Ofthem, the EU, along with the United States, has also stepped up sanctions against Myanmar, while Japan suspended its economic aid to the country to press for ASSK's release.

In the latest development, the recent Fifth Asia-Europe Meetingin Bali has also called on the Myanmar government to release ASSK and ensure freedom of political activities in the country.

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