Japan may cut aid to Myanmar; Cambodia calls for regional role

TOKYO: Japan said Wednesday it is preparing to cut aid to Myanmar, while Cambodia's prime minister urged Myanmar's neighbors to work as a group to help find a democratic solution to the country's political crisis.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen called for the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations to play a role resolving the tensions in Myanmar and urged the junta to refrain from further violence.

Hun Sen said the involvement of Myanmar's Buddhist monks in recent pro-democracy protests showed problems had reached a new level of seriousness.

"ASEAN should be playing a more active role," he told reporters, proposing the bloc form a group, led by ASEAN chair Singapore, that can "assist in finding solution to the problems in Myanmar."

Myanmar's junta broadcast warnings from trucks Wednesday that soldiers were searching for protesters.

Myanmar's military crushed pro-democracy protests on Sept. 26 and 27 with live ammunition, tear gas and by beating up demonstrators. Hundreds of monks and civilians were carted off to detention camps. The government says 10 people were killed in the violence, but dissident groups put the toll as high as 200. They say 6,000 people were detained.

U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari was in transit in Singapore on Wednesday after a four-day mission in Myanmar, where he met junta leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe and his deputies to convey the international community's outrage at the junta's actions. He also talked to detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi twice.

In Singapore, Gambari met with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Myanmar is an ASEAN member.

A Singapore government statement said Lee told Gambari that ASEAN "is fully behind his mission" to bring about a political solution for national reconciliation and a peaceful transition to democracy.

In Indonesia, dozens of Buddhist monks rallied outside the Myanmar Embassy, demanding Jakarta and the U.N. to take immediate action and waving banners denouncing the military junta.

"Stop all forms of violence and start looking for a solution with cool heads," said monk Matra Maitri.

In Geneva on Tuesday, the 47-nation U.N. Human Rights Council condemned the military's crackdown and urged an immediate investigation of the situation.

In Tokyo, Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said Japan was preparing to suspend aid to Myanmar over the death of Kenji Nagai during last week's military crackdown on street protests in Yangon despite repeated international calls to end repression.

"There have been calls to freeze aid entirely, but ordinary people in that country are already suffering. So we've decided to narrow down humanitarian aid for now," Komura told a group of reporters.

Japan has not formally announced details of the aid cut, though Komura said Tokyo would keep up assistance to humanitarian projects like polio eradication.

Japan is Myanmar's largest aid donor. It suspended yen-denominated loans for major projects after another violent crackdown in 1988, but has since given aid under a program focused mainly on health, education and humanitarian projects.

In 2005, Japan provided grants totaling 1.3 billion yen (US$11.2 million; €7.9 million) and 1.7 billion yen (US$14.7 million; €10.3 million) in technology assistance, according to the latest ministry figures.

Japan has limited its economic aid to Myanmar to humanitarian assistance, and is now "considering cutting it back further," Komura said.