Myanmar Official Says Sanctions Not Hurting Growth

Though the Myanmar economy is widely reported to be a shambles, top officials of the country’s military junta came here Thursday with Washington publicists in tow and declared there is no problem.

U.S. economic sanctions against Myanmar, formerly Burma, have not hurt the country’s growth prospects and ultimately will backfire, Foreign Minister U Ohn Gyaw said in a rare meeting with Western reporters.

In fact, Gyaw said, Myanmar continues to develop its domestic economy and boost trade, especially with its Southeast Asian neighbors.

“As you know,” he said, “the Asian mentality is such that if there is a challenge, we work more, we have more sacrifice. Then [the sanctions] will be a blessing in disguise.”

The minister’s upbeat assessment contrasted sharply with other accounts, such as a recent report in the Far Eastern Economic Review that Myanmar’s currency, the kyat, has collapsed and its economy is in tatters.

Instead, Myanmar officials asserted that foreign investment totals $6.39 billion from 22 countries and that through Aug. 31, there has been a fourfold increase over the same period last year.

But dozens of U.S. and other foreign firms have pulled out of the country, and Texaco Inc. announced last week that it was selling its stake in a controversial offshore natural gas project there, although it denied any connection with the U.S. sanctions.

Unocal Corp. and Atlantic Richfield Co. are the major U.S. firms that remain active in Myanmar. Unocal has been widely criticized for its partnership with the government’s state oil and gas company in a $2-billion pipeline project.

Another Unocal partner on the pipeline is Total, the French oil giant that this week defied a U.S. embargo against Iran by signing a $2-billion natural gas deal there.

Although the official reason for Gyaw’s U.S. trip was to address the U.N. General Assembly last week, reversing negative perceptions about the regime he represents is an evident part of his mission.

Indeed, the U.N. meeting presented a rare opportunity to plead Myanmar’s case, since top government officials and their families have been banned from the U.S. as part of the economic sanctions. They were allowed in temporarily.

But in image-building, they face an uphill fight.

The ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council has become an international pariah since it rejected the outcome of free elections in 1990 and refused to hand over power to the victorious political party headed by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

The government also has been implicated in international drug trade and in widespread human rights violations, leading to the Clinton administration’s ban on new investment there and to sanctions by Massachusetts and more than a dozen cities, including San Francisco, Oakland, Santa Monica and Berkeley.

While Gyaw and fellow ministers--assisted by the public relations firm of Bain & Associates--sat down with the media in a midtown Manhattan hotel, a crowd of several dozen protesters stood on the sidewalk outside, screaming: “Gyaw lies!” and “Killers!”

The protesters, members of the Burma Action Committee New York, repeated a charge by Suu Kyi that the junta has imprisoned more than 1,000 people for political reasons.

“This is wrong,” said Gyaw. “We do not have political prisoners that much.” He explained that when the current leaders seized power in 1988, there was widespread “anarchy” in the land and lawbreakers were jailed in due course.

“If that particular person who transgressed the law happens to be from the [opposition] political party, we can’t help it,” Gyaw said.

Gyaw was asked to explain the government’s refusal to grant a visa to a representative of the International Committee for the Red Cross to inspect Myanmar’s prisons for suspected human rights violations.

He replied that some of the Red Cross’ proposed inspection procedures violate Myanmar’s existing penal code--namely an 1890 prison manual dating to British colonial rule. The law must be revised before the inspection can proceed, Gyaw said.

The minister said he and his delegation have had no contact with U.S. officials, but they did meet with the Iraqi foreign minister to discuss the possibility of Iraq sending an ambassador to Myanmar.