Myanmar rulers lash out at West, foreign media for stoking recent protests

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Myanmar's ruling military angrily accused Western powers and foreign media Thursday of inciting recent protests that were crushed by soldiers, and China urged the world to back UN mediation efforts to reconcile the junta and the pro-democracy movement. The state-owned New Light of Myanmar newspaper dismissed the protesters, who are still being hunted down in raids across the impoverished country, as "stooges of foreign countries putting on a play written by their foreign masters." The paper signaled out "big powers" and radio stations - the British Broadcasting Corp., Voice of America and Radio Free Asia - as behind the demonstrations, which were violently put down September 26-27 in clashes condemned by nations around the world. The United States and other countries have pressed for wide international sanctions against Myanmar, formerly Burma, to pressure the junta to allow democratic reforms, but China on Thursday said only a more conciliatory approach would work.