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Don’t push Myanmar back into isolation: Win Aung
The international community should avoid pushing back Myanmar into isolation by imposing or threatening to implement sanctions, the country’s foreign minister said in a commentary published here Friday.
Why not?
“Threats and imposition of sanctions are counter-productive,” Foreign Minister Win Aung said in the article published in Singapore’s Straits Times newspaper. “Sanctions are blunt weapons. They do more harm than good. For many years now, all forms of development assistance have been denied Myanmar by international finance institutions.” He added: “It is one thing to criticise and adopt sanctions. It is quite another to ensure that 52 million people are well-fed, well-clothed and well-sheltered.”
He's operating under the mistaken assumption that anybody gives a rat's patou. Being nice didn't work — so why should we waste more time being nice? It's the old "one false move and the population gets it." North Korea does it better.

Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2003-07-26
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=16936