Japan’s new foreign minister, speaking with his Burmese counterpart in Cambodia on Saturday, called on Burma’s ruling regime to ensure that an election slated for next year is fair and transparent and includes all stakeholders.
Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Katsuya Okada made the remarks during a meeting with Burmese Foreign Minister Nyan Win on the sidelines of the second Mekong-Japan Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, held in Siem Reap, Cambodia, on October 2-3.
Okada said that to ensure a free and fair election, “the Burmese government should release all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, before the country holds the election,” Kazuo Kodama, a press secretary from Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday.
Okada added that the election would be “a great opportunity for the Burmese government to show the international community” that it is committed to the process of democratization.
Japan is one of Burma’s main donor nations. Between 1999 and 2006, it provided Burma with more than US $2.96 billion in Official Development Assistance (ODA), according to Japanese officials.
However, Tokyo temporarily stopped its ODA to Burma after the 2007 Saffron Revolution, when a Japanese journalist, Kenji Nagai, was killed.
In August of this year, when Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was sentenced to a further 18 months of house arrest, the Japanese foreign minister said in statement that Japan was deeply disappointed and called for her release and that of other political prisoners.
In response to the current Japanese foreign minister’s call to release Suu Kyi, Nyan Win said that it would depend on her actions.
Japan welcomed the Burmese regime’s release of over 100 political prisoners in late September, but said that all of the country’s estimated 2,100 political detainees should be freed to allow them to participate in the election.
Some Burmese pro-democracy activists in Japan said that they believe the newly elected Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) will take more active role in promoting democratization in Burma.
The DPJ is believed to be a strong supporter of the Burmese democracy movement, unlike the previously ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which rarely criticized the Burmese junta. Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama spoke with Suu Kyi on the telephone when she was released from house arrest in 2002.
Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said it has no plans to change its policy of direct engagement with the Burmese regime. It also said that its supports the recently revised US policy, which now combines engagement with continued economic sanctions.
Although Tokyo’s often lukewarm support for political reform in Burma is usually linked to its desire to please the US, its main ally, Japan also has other reasons to be concerned about developments in Burma.
Over the past 20 years, Japan has lost much of its influence in Burma to China, which has ignored international calls to isolate the junta. In recent years, the Burmese regime has also formed closer ties with North Korea, a country that is often openly hostile to Japan.
An editorial in the English-language edition of the Asahi Shimbun, one of Japan’s major daily newspapers, said today that “Restoring democracy to Myanmar [Burma] … would block the possibility of military cooperation with North Korea.”
Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Katsuya Okada made the remarks during a meeting with Burmese Foreign Minister Nyan Win on the sidelines of the second Mekong-Japan Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, held in Siem Reap, Cambodia, on October 2-3.
Okada said that to ensure a free and fair election, “the Burmese government should release all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, before the country holds the election,” Kazuo Kodama, a press secretary from Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday.
Okada added that the election would be “a great opportunity for the Burmese government to show the international community” that it is committed to the process of democratization.
Japan is one of Burma’s main donor nations. Between 1999 and 2006, it provided Burma with more than US $2.96 billion in Official Development Assistance (ODA), according to Japanese officials.
However, Tokyo temporarily stopped its ODA to Burma after the 2007 Saffron Revolution, when a Japanese journalist, Kenji Nagai, was killed.
In August of this year, when Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was sentenced to a further 18 months of house arrest, the Japanese foreign minister said in statement that Japan was deeply disappointed and called for her release and that of other political prisoners.
In response to the current Japanese foreign minister’s call to release Suu Kyi, Nyan Win said that it would depend on her actions.
Japan welcomed the Burmese regime’s release of over 100 political prisoners in late September, but said that all of the country’s estimated 2,100 political detainees should be freed to allow them to participate in the election.
Some Burmese pro-democracy activists in Japan said that they believe the newly elected Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) will take more active role in promoting democratization in Burma.
The DPJ is believed to be a strong supporter of the Burmese democracy movement, unlike the previously ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which rarely criticized the Burmese junta. Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama spoke with Suu Kyi on the telephone when she was released from house arrest in 2002.
Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said it has no plans to change its policy of direct engagement with the Burmese regime. It also said that its supports the recently revised US policy, which now combines engagement with continued economic sanctions.
Although Tokyo’s often lukewarm support for political reform in Burma is usually linked to its desire to please the US, its main ally, Japan also has other reasons to be concerned about developments in Burma.
Over the past 20 years, Japan has lost much of its influence in Burma to China, which has ignored international calls to isolate the junta. In recent years, the Burmese regime has also formed closer ties with North Korea, a country that is often openly hostile to Japan.
An editorial in the English-language edition of the Asahi Shimbun, one of Japan’s major daily newspapers, said today that “Restoring democracy to Myanmar [Burma] … would block the possibility of military cooperation with North Korea.”
