About 70 Myanmarese activists and their supporters marched through central Tokyo on March 13 to protest the Japanese government's recent decision to resume yen loans to Myanmar's military regime.

Some of the protesters, dressed in National League for Democracy uniforms, paraded the streets with a picture of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, as they made their way from Mikawadai Park in Roppongi to the Foreign Ministry. The activists shouted slogans, urging Japan to cancel its decision to provide official development assistance to the military junta and support talks with Suu Kyi.

"We don't want an aid that will only torment Burmese citizens and democracy activists by supporting the suppression of the military junta," said Ye Htut, president of the Japan Branch of the National League for Democracy and an organizer of the march.

Japan plans to provide about 2.5 billion yen in low-interest loans to Myanmar as early as the next few weeks to repair a damaged runway at Yangon's international airport.

"Only some 100,000 people use the airport and about half of them are military officials," Ye Htut said. "Should the safety of remaining 45 million citizens threatened for them?"

"The situation in Burma (Myanmar) is worsening as the junta has put increased pressure on the people," said Khaing Nyunt Naing of NLD's Japan Branch. "The Japanese government is not making sense. Although it practices democracy, it supports an undemocratic regime."

At the end of the march, protesters handed a statement to the Foreign Ministry, opposing the government decision to resume ODA and requesting that any forthcoming ODA decision be delivered in transparency and made only when human rights and democracy situations in Myanmar improve.