West at fault for dragging out Burma stalemate

source : The Nation
Published on Sep 8, 2001

The OpEd piece on Burma in your paper is old news ["Khin Nyunt visit opens a new era", September 3). This was a fact of life years ago. The blame for this is the long drawn out stalemate with the West putting all their eggs in the Aung San Suu Kyi basket. While she had the West on a leash,Burma's junta had nowhere else to go. For years they sent signals to the West. So now while China eats at Burma year by year and the ethnic Burmans become the coolies for the Chinese, we in the West still ponder what to do about Burma.

This is a total disgrace for the US, Canada and Australia, once proud allies of Burma. And lest we forget, the staunch British the old colonial masters who totally abandoned their old friends.

This is a sad day for democracy and the future of the Burmese people, not to mention the ethnics who for over 45 years looked to the West - why I'll never know. They were much better off being communist back then. In that way they would have had a seat at the table of nations today. Just look at China. All the West is falling over itself to do business with them,

Justin Oliver
CANADA

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