NOVEMBER 15, 1999 VOL. 154 NO. 19

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	ALSO IN TIME
	Burma: Signs of Hope? Burma's ruling junta continues to squabble with Aung San Suu Kyi, but the generals now seem more attentive to international calls for reform Aung San Suu Kyi: 'This government is not capable of running the economy' Online Exclusive: Full text of TIME's interview with Aung San Suu Kyi Win Aung: 'Sincerity is needed on their side' Online Exclusive: Full text of TIME's interview with Foreign Minister Win Aung
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TIME: Have you pledged confidentiality on this subject to the U.N. envoy?
Suu Kyi: No, it is just our policy. If we have anything to say with regard to the climate for negotiations, we will say it officially as the NLD. I will not say it personally. The issue of negotiations is something that the party decides and makes pronouncements about, not any individual within the party.

TIME: Is there any formal discussion of this going on now within the party?
Suu Kyi: We discuss it all the time. Everybody discusses it all the time. You are discussing it and then you come and ask whether we are discussing it.

TIME: Could you give any characterization of what you would consider dialogue? Is sitting down at the table enough?
Suu Kyi: We spelled that out as well in our official statement regarding a dialogue--that it has to be a genuine political dialogue based on mutual respect and trust, and that it must be taken with the intention of doing what is best for the country. The main aim of the dialogue should be to resolve the problems of the nation, not to find who is the winner and who is the loser. That's not what it's all about. It's to try and find an answer that is acceptable to all parties concerned, which would of course require some give and take.

TIME: Did any of the talks that took place recently with the U.N. official and the World Bank official move the situation along in any way toward eventual talks?
Suu Kyi: With regard to Mr. De Soto's visit, I think we'll have to wait for the Secretary-General's statement to come out.

TIME: Did your meetings with Mr. De Soto give you any chance which you have not had earlier to talk about the situation as you see it?
Suu Kyi: As I said earlier, it is not the first of its kind. It's just one of many initiatives.

TIME: Earlier the World Bank official had come, then the U.S. raised objections, now he's come back. After the sabotage of the $1 billion proposal last time...
Suu Kyi: Wasn't that a misunderstanding on someone's part?

TIME: There was a newspaper article about this plan.
Suu Kyi: Nobody has ever confirmed this. The newspaper article got its facts wrong, so that's where you have to go to. It certainly did not come from us, so we have nothing to add to it.

TIME: It does appear, however, that there is some desire on the part of some U.N. donor countries to try and find a new approach to this stalemate. This would show the amount of economic support that is being lost by intransigence on the part of the government--not to offer money, but to show how much is being lost by the fact that no talks are going on.
Suu Kyi: I'm afraid that you would have to ask those who spoke to the SPDC about whether they went about it in a different way.

TIME: I'm told that the emphasis which would have been used last time--had the newspaper article not short-circuited the De Soto visit last time--is still being discussed: front-loading the economic issues onto the political issues.
Suu Kyi: Let's wait to hear what the Secretary-General has to say about it. Obviously, he will know better than we do.

TIME: Do you object to any of the economic factors being stressed as incentive for dialogue?
Suu Kyi: It is not for us to talk about whatever it is that Mr. De Soto talked about. That would be going beyond the lines of our part of the deal. We don't talk about what other people talk to others about. I can only talk about our side, and as I have already explained for us it is but one of many initiatives, and it is not the first time Mr. De Soto has come out here, so we just don't think about it as very new or unusual.

TIME: How promising does this approach appear to be?
Suu Kyi: Well, we didn't see Mr. De Soto after his last meeting with the foreign minister, so we can't say anything about it.

TIME: Your remarks about other governments not lavishing aid and investment on this government in such a way as to strengthen the government...
Suu Kyi: We say that the problems of Burma are due to bad government, not because the situation in Burma is bad in itself. It is because of bad government that we are in such trouble. So it is like pouring water into a bucket with a hole in it.

TIME: So you haven't changed your opinion on that.
Suu Kyi: No, we have had no reason to change our opinion, because our views have been vindicated by what has happened over the last two years. The mess with the economy is not due to what we did. A lot of the investors who decided not to invest in Burma did not do so because we told them not to do so. A lot of people who invested and then withdrew are from out of this country, and the reason they withdrew is because they saw for themselves that the climate is not right for sustained economic development.

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