AP
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - Cambodia's prime minister expressed his opposition Wednesday to economic sanctions against Myanmar, saying they would not force the ruling military junta to make reforms.
"The game of sanctions will never lead to any result but will only cause hardship for the poor people," Prime Minister Hun Sen said in a speech at a development meeting in Phnom Penh.
The United States and European Union have been pushing for tougher sanctions against Myanmar in response to its September crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators that killed at least 15 people.
During a visit to Cambodia last week Ibrahim Gambari _ the U.N.'s special envoy to Myanmar _ called for more cooperation between Myanmar's military rulers and the United Nations in speeding up democratic reforms to avoid sanctions being sought against the regime.
Gambari also called on the government to release detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and include her in the process of reform and reconciliation.
Myanmar Prime Minister Lt. Gen. Thein Sein also visited Cambodia last week and discussed sanctions with Hun Sen.
Hun Sen said he has not been persuaded to side with the Myanmar junta, but that sanctions would not help resolve the political situation there.
The military government will continue to be sustained by foreign companies that are doing business in the country, he said.
Companies from countries such as China and Thailand have invested in natural gas, timber and gem stones in Myanmar, where an estimated 90 percent of the 54 million people live on about US$1 a day.
"The game of sanctions will never lead to any result but will only cause hardship for the poor people," Prime Minister Hun Sen said in a speech at a development meeting in Phnom Penh.
The United States and European Union have been pushing for tougher sanctions against Myanmar in response to its September crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators that killed at least 15 people.
During a visit to Cambodia last week Ibrahim Gambari _ the U.N.'s special envoy to Myanmar _ called for more cooperation between Myanmar's military rulers and the United Nations in speeding up democratic reforms to avoid sanctions being sought against the regime.
Gambari also called on the government to release detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and include her in the process of reform and reconciliation.
Myanmar Prime Minister Lt. Gen. Thein Sein also visited Cambodia last week and discussed sanctions with Hun Sen.
Hun Sen said he has not been persuaded to side with the Myanmar junta, but that sanctions would not help resolve the political situation there.
The military government will continue to be sustained by foreign companies that are doing business in the country, he said.
Companies from countries such as China and Thailand have invested in natural gas, timber and gem stones in Myanmar, where an estimated 90 percent of the 54 million people live on about US$1 a day.
19 comments:
That's right, our brother (Burmese) will not give in to no sanction against them in an attempt to turn Burma west, and we all (Asians) will be behind our brother all the way.
Yes, this is a good support from our prime minister of Cambodia as we like to kill those who oppose us. We have done a great job for our group by killing the weakers.
5:02PM,
Seriously, you truly want to be behind Burma? And why? What makes Burma's current military junta regime so endlessly wonderful in your eyes that it makes you want to be behind it? I simply just want to know. If you're so adamant about your "Asian-pride" attitude, then you're probably 100% behind nations such as South Korea and Japan, who are too Asian countries and are Westernized in some ways, shapes and forms. Do you resent those nations because somehow they've "turned West" in your view? I've seen a lot of your post and it appears you have some sort of deep resentment against the "west" and "western-trained Asians", am I right?
And also:
["The game of sanctions will never lead to any result but will only cause hardship for the poor people," Prime Minister Hun Sen said in a speech at a development meeting in Phnom Penh.]
Wow...it will only cause hardship for the poor people. Mr. Hun Sen, you are such a genius! So those worthless diplomas you've received from all of these universities really do have some value in them!
Come one. He can comment about such things on other nations but when it comes to his own nation, he hardly gives a rat's ass about the poor and suffering. If it wasn't for the aid of donor nations and having them somewhat pressure him, he wouldn't have done much of the things that he has done in his "effort" to better Cambodia .
5:42, I don't westerner, but I am not stupid enough to let no westerner to rape Asian culture and to divide our brothers, and to make us kill each other all over Asia just to keep us weak and under control as in colonial period. No way Jose.
As far as I am concerned, we will stand behind our brothers (Asians) against all westerners cultural invasion and abuse.
And what are you telling be about South Korea? That they should rape the North now because the economic sanction had kept them in poverty of over 50 years now? Is that what your westerner professors wanted you to do for him?
Correction:
5:42, I don't hate westerner, but I am not stupid enough to let no westerner to rape Asian culture and to divide our brothers, and to make us kill each other all over Asia just to keep us weak and under control as in colonial period. No way Jose.
As far as I am concerned, we will stand behind our brothers (Asians) against all westerners cultural invasion and abuse.
And what are you telling us about South Korea? That they should rape the North now because the economic sanction had kept them in poverty of over 50 years now? Is that what your westerner professors wanted you to do for him?
6:36 PM,
But wouldn't it be safe to say that our very own "Asian brothers" have done just as much damage to Cambodia. I mean, I know that colonization by European powers have compromised the sovereignty of certain Asian nations and also left a legacy that resulted in problems leading into the 20th century and onwards. That I don't dismiss because it is true.
However, when you said "...westerner to rape Asian culture and to divide our brothers, and to make us kill each other...", isn't that what Asian nations such as P.R. of China & Vietnam did to us (Cambodia) along with Western powers...and to certain extent Imperial Japan over Asia during WWII? And it's not really Western powers, nor our Asian neighbors that are destroying us Cambodians, it's actually us, the Cambodians that are destroying ourselves. It's true, we don't have to let others stomp on us or take away our dignity but from the looks of it, it doesn't seem like our present-day Cambodian government cares so much to get us out of this cycle. They are the ones perpetuating this self-destruction. We will always be the "ant in between the elephants".
Going back to Burma. I'll stand by the Burmese people and call them my Asian brothers, but I won't stand by their government, especially the internal policy that they apply towards their very own citizens.
It is very sad to hear the way Hun Sen talking this way. With dictatorship and corruption, the international sanction created a real hardship for the poor peoples. The cut off relationship with internal create greedy and corruption getting worst. The corrupted officers are taking the same money available in the country. Less money means more money to the corrupted officers and less to non for the Cambodian.
Hun Sen seams to understand the consequence but he has no action to help the poor while Cambodia has no sanction by any country. Why can he take the best opportunity to help the poor? Get-up and smell the rose
Cut of the sanction. You all know the facts already, the poor never benefits form anything given by donors.
If you give a billion today, my life as an ordinary Cambodian/Burmese in the slum will still be the same-you will still see me picking up trash for food and money, and my life in the village will still be the same.
The only difference is, my life in the city will be much more complicated. That money will not be spend with me or my family and my friends in mind, in fact it will be spent sending all of us away through evictions, more money=more gun to remove us without compensating, to places where my children have no school to learn, no meals to eat and malaria runs through the camp like an unstoppable plague.
So go ahead, cut off all the funds. Your funds has not help me then it has hurt me, if you are responsible and have remorse about the countries of the the third world and its beggars and peasant class like me, then you will demand that Sein Thein and Hun Sen become accountable for the money you been stuffing them with.
Else, please take your money elsewhere and do something useful. But do not feed alligators who already have us as meats to feed on.
Hun Sen is lying when he said it won't hurt the rulers and only the people. You have seen many studies by NGOs and envoys that tell you where these money really go. Why do you still feign ignorance to our suffering?
Do you really care about us or do you just need to maintain your balance for power, influence, and money?
If the donors, all countries that donate, western and eastern including, Japan, Korea, India, Singapore, Taiwan, etc. have more responsibility then it will not hurt us as it is today.
The people that claim sanctions will hurt us are the people who are not in our shoes, they have the audacity to speak for us all, with their wealths and richess that they got from the donations, we have only more suffering.
They do not want responsibility so they argue against with the vain use of our misery!
"The game of sanctions will never lead to any result but will only cause hardship for the poor people," Prime Minister Hun Sen said in a speech at a development meeting in Phnom Penh.
What PM Hun Sen is saying is that, if the UN put a sanction against the dictator government, then that government would continue to oppress more on its people.
So in theory, the world has two choices: (1) The UN can put sanction against the dictator gov't and its people would continue to be more suffered, or (2) The UN would not do anything and allow that dictator government to continue to oppress its people - corruption, human trafficking, deforestation, exploitation, drug trafficking, etc.
8:11, you are jumping a conclusion based on one side of the story. And to make thing worse, you condemn your own brother from the propaganda. Is that what your parent teach you, I mean how to treat your own brothers and sisters?
FYI, we are not that way.
10:51 PM,
Honestly, Burma's supressions against their own citizens are far more serious than the rest of ASEANS nations. Without Westerner's help, Janpaneses would still conquor all the northeast & southeast Asia countries until now. I heard a lot of heads were cutoff during Japanese invasions. Cruelty was so terrify. We were so lucky that US and its allies stopped them.
Yeah, but who do you think taught Japanese how to build fighter planes, aircraft carriers, armor tank, biological weapons, ...?
As for Burma, why, what, and how exactly did the citizen got suppressed?
And also why the Burmese government joins ASEAN and seek trade with Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, ... Is this just to benefit the military government?
9:39, how far do you think $1 billion goes for the Burmese people? Are you expected them to be rich from it or something?
This is normal for Hun Sen to express sympathy to Burma in order to legitimize himself from evil administration such as grenade attack and inhumanized the Buddhist monks or demonstrators.
However, this trend of Hun Sen towards Burma is a sign of bad and bad for Cambodia.
First: his view point is contradict to ASEAN
Second: his support of Burma is contradict to UN and international community.
Third: his support of Burma is only favoring China who has never brought good thing to Cambodia. China brought to Cambodia only Khmer Rouge, dictatorship and corruption.
Hun Sen's international diplomacy with this Burma issue is just a useless lackey activity as he has always performed to his former boss, VN.
KY
All bla bla bla, i said nuke the JUNTA.
I agree with the guys who said they side with the Burmeese people but not with the government.
The UN sanction, if you take a indepth look at it. It actually freezing assests that belong to the government officials. It target individuals in the government. Mr. Bush is the proud sponsor of this and he made sure it did not hurt the people but only the individual in the government.
The Government officials like the Hun Sen cronies. Put there money somewhere safe, and where that safe place is? international BANKS. So by freezing it, it would make them think twice and have some kind of dialogue.
12:21 AM you take things so literally and never understands the real concept being discuss. NO wonder you're a hun sen defender.
you're not capable of understanding anything actions or things said, unless it gives you immediate satifisaction and result. You are a concrete individual not capable of thinking and conceptualizing. you cannot abstract an idea to ponder.
in short, you are a dumbass. Now i know this, you understand, i'm sure you will come back all enrage with more ridiculous things to say, but that's expected out of people like yourself.
Have a good day.
Okay 4:53, what about 2 billions/yr. how far do you think that will do for Burmese people? FYI, they have a population of 47 Millions.
And what about the stupid abstract? Are you proposing that we should use this to judge people, instead of concrete fact or mathematic?
Post a Comment