By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/banvac8myanmar092309.html
UNITED NATIONS, September 23 -- As the UN's "Group of Friends of the Secretary General on Myanmar" met Wednesday in the UN's basement, in the penned in area outside, the talk was of backsliding. Despite the near rote talk about Aung San Suu Kyi, the U.S. is said to be ready to "engage" with the military government of Than Shwe. And when Singapore's foreign minister George Yeo emerged, he said he welcomed Hillary Clinton's statement.
Inner City Press asked, what about the upsurge in violence against ethnic groups, such as in the Kokang regions, leading to refugee flows? The Singaporean minister said that was not discussed, that "drugs" were not discussed, only refugees.
Despite this cognitive dissonance, Inner City Press asked if he thought the UN should provide electoral assistant -- just cut off to Honduras -- since the Myanmar constitution devotes seats to those with military background. That is not a bad thing, the Minister asked, the involvement of the military. Video here.
Friends on Myanmar, indeed. The contradiction of suspending election aid to Honduras, but moving to provide it in Myanmar, will be explored.
Earlier on Wednesday, Inner City Press asked Kazuo Kodama, Press Secretary for the Prime Minister of Japan, for his country's position on Myanmar. Tellingly, the issue did not come up in the Prime Minister's meeting with Barack Obama. But, it emerged, it did come up in his meeting with the UK's Gordon Brown. The spokesman added, as if by rote, the Aung San Suu Kyi should be freed.
Later, the Japanese foreign minister came out of the Friends' meeting and took two questions in Japanese, none in English. Presumably, he did not respond to the calls that Japan divest of Nippon Oil Exploration (Myanmar), with a stake in natural gas in the country. We'll see.
