"The European Commission raises eyebrows by commissioning two ?Burma experts,? known for their military regime sympathy, to write a report for a Brussels meeting. European officials had to do a lot of not-so-nifty diplomatic footwork to explain a meeting in Brussels called ?Burma Day 2005 (page 15).? It was an exercise in damage control in the face of a chorus of complaints by pro-democracy and human rights activists with other critics, who effectively thought it was more a Day of Shame. The meeting centered on a European Commission-commissioned report authored by Robert Taylor and Morten Pedersen, dubbed by the critics as Burmese regime apologists. The affair was supposed to dwell on humanitarian aid to Burma which, said EU officials, was why Taylor and Pedersen had been chosen to write the report, and why only ?in-the-field? aid experts had been invited. Nonsense, retorted the uninvited critics: Taylor and Pedersen could in no way be described as aid experts, and nor could some of the other guests..."