Thursday, March 15, 2012

Myanmar ministry to sue journal over graft claims

Myanmar's mining ministry said Wednesday it would file a lawsuit against a news journal which published allegations of corruption in rare public scrutiny of the regime's finances.

The Voice weekly, quoting unnamed parliamentarians, said Myanmar's Auditor-General's Office had discovered misappropriations of funds and fraud in the ministries of mining, information, agriculture and industry.

"There was no misappropriation," the mining ministry's director general Win Htein told AFP.

"As their false report harmed our dignity, we decided to sue them.

"We regret that misunderstanding occurred between the people and the civil service because of this report."

The publication of such an article in Myanmar would have been unthinkable until recently, but over the past year a new quasi-civilian government has overseen dramatic reforms, including a softening of media censorship.

The article containing the corruption allegations is understood to have been published without approval by the censors.

Observers say there are signs of a power struggle between reformists such as President Thein Sein and other figures regarded as hardliners, some of whom headed the ministries linked to the corruption allegations at the time.

Myanmar remains one of the world's least developed countries and critics of the former junta and its associates said they exploited the country's abundant resources for their own benefit.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/myanmar-ministry-sue-journal-over-graft-claims-160919093.html

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