By FOSTER KLUG,
AP
Posted: 2008-02-02 00:23:57
WASHINGTON (AP) – President George W. Bush on Monday is expected to propose a boost in funding for Myanmar in his annual budget request.
Bush will likely request nearly $16 million (11 million) be targeted toward the military-led Southeast Asian country, a large jump from the nearly $5 million requested last year, according to a congressional aide familiar with the proposal.
The proposal indicates the administration wants to step up funding meant to spark change in the country, also known as Burma, after its military crushed pro-democracy protests led by students and Buddhist priests last year.
Monday’s request by the Bush administration will be the start of a long budget process. The Senate and the House of Representatives must make their own recommendations on funding; negotiators from each side would then hammer out a compromise bill before sending it to the president to sign into law.
As Bush, a Republican, enters his last year in office, he faces strong opposition from the Democratic party that controls Congress. That means there is no guarantee that the budget will be funded at the levels he has requested.
The aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the request had yet to be formally released, said about $186 million (125 million) would be requested for Indonesia, of which nearly $16 million (11 million) would be for military aid. That’s down about $4 million from the previous year’s enacted level, the aide said. Military aid levels are roughly the same.
The Bush administration sees Indonesia as crucial to fighting terrorism in Southeast Asia. Last year’s military aid was linked to the U.S. Secretary of State reporting to Congress that Indonesia had accounted for past human rights violations by its military.
The United States eliminated military ties with Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, in 1999 to protest alleged rights abuses by Indonesian troops in breakaway East Timor. The ban was lifted in 2005 by the Bush administration.