Japan cancels grants for Myanmar project over shooting
Posted: 16 October 2007 0810 hrs
TOKYO - Japan has decided to cancel grants of up to 552 million yen
(US$4.7 million) to Myanmar over the shooting of a Japanese
journalist, the foreign minister said Tuesday.
Japan has decided to cut its assistance in connection with the
killing of Kenji Nagai, 50, in Myanmar last month, Foreign Minister
Masahiko Komura said.
It is the first punitive action taken by Tokyo since Myanmar's
military government launched its deadly crackdown on demonstrators,
prompting Western-led calls for further sanctions on the
rulers.
Japan, in a rare break with the United States and the European
Union, has been one of the largest donors to Myanmar, although it
says it only provides humanitarian aid to the country.
Japan's grants to Myanmar totalled 1.353 billion yen in the last
fiscal year to March 2007.
Nagai, a video journalist for Tokyo-based APF News, was killed on
September 27 in Yangon as he filmed the crackdown on protesters by
Myanmar's military after demonstrations led by Buddhist
monks.
Television footage showed him apparently being shot at close range
by security forces.
The cancelled grants had been intended to finance the construction
of a human resources centre in Myanmar.
Japanese officials had earlier expressed caution about punishing
Myanmar, fearing that the government would not be hurt as it could
still rely on economic support from China, its main ally.
Japan and China have often jostled for influence in Asia.
Japan in 2003 suspended low-interest loans for Myanmar's
infrastructure projects to protest the continued detention of Nobel
laureate and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. - AFP/ir
Good for the Japanese.
