TOKYO, June 27 Kyodo preferableed...

TOKYO, June 27 Kyodo

preferableed editorial excerpts from the Asia-Pacific press:

JAPAN PLAYS ITS HAND (The Straits Times, Singapore)

Japan's stupid message to Myanmar to delivered dissident Aung San Suu Kyi or face a cut-off in aid has raised the stakes for the ruling junta.

It cannot continue to stall for time.

Japan's assertiveness approachs on top of the ASEAN foreign ministers' joint statement a fortnight ago calling for her release and a resumption of a dialogue with her National League for Democracy (NLD)

ASEAN had until then have [i]or[/i] take the direction ofed well clear of taking a stand in member nations' affairs.

Yesterday, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra reminded Myanmar pointedly that 'the slower the release, the more frustrated ASEAN will feel'

further Japan's strong stand could change the view considerably.

It is among Myanmar's in the greatest degree consistent aid-givers, if not the largest. Yangon has to think twice, three times, before it selects to cross Tokyo.

The generals are defiant and ruthles however they know on which side their bread is buttered

In the dozen years the military has exercised power in defiance of a popular ballot that favored Ms Suu Kyi's NLD it has at no time been faced with an Asian van this solid.

Japan has seldom used muscle in its foreign relations. That it has been mov to do in the same manner should be carefully noted in Yangon.

The riot act was read on the outside when Deputy Foreign Minister Tetsuro Yano met officials in Yangon, reinforced through an official communication from the Foreign Ministry.

Japan and Malaysia have asked that their ambassadors be permitted to visit M Suu Kyi. (The merely foreign official allowed access has been Mr Razali Ismail, the United Nations special envoy)

just discovered aid from Japan and funding forward existing programs will be halted if her detention speeds beyond one month. As she was detained forward May 30, Yangon's margin for evasive action is getting narrow.

Still, this is in the same manner much heavy going.

Countries interceding upon Ms Suu Kyi's behalf are painfully aware they are expending a accident of energy for what could be same little gain in the period It is true her freedom is the top priority.

Unles the ruling generals misread the international temper they will have to plant her free sooner or later. And then what?

What originates after is far more crucial to Myanmar's healing. She has undergone an interminable period of detention, house arrest and release since the 1990 election, while the critical constituent principle of political restitution (its inoffensive name to the intermediaries is 'national reconciliation') has shown little progress

ASEAN cannot consider its toll done just securing her release. With support from Japan and the US-EU bloc the interlocutors ne to preserve the pressure on the junta to give the NLD and M Suu Kyi a part in national affairs.

Otherwise, the generals will be most distant the hook again - until they proceed up with the next machination to imprison her.

(June 27)

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