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EXILED PM FEARS EU MAY EASE PRESSUR



Subject: EXILED PM FEARS EU MAY EASE PRESSURE ON RANGOON

 

               

 REUTER 5/4
                   Exiled PM fears EU may
                  ease pressure on Rangoon 


                 As the human rights situation in Burma deteriorates,
                 the democracy movement is concerned that Europe
                 may ease the pressure on the military regime. Mark
                 Brennock, Foreign Affairs Correspondent, spoke
                         to Burma's prime minister-in-exile. 

                 The man who should have been Burma's prime minister will
                 today ask the Tánaiste, Mr Spring, to try to ensure that the EU
                 does not put trade before human rights in its dealings with
                 Burma.

                 Dr Sein Win, now his country's prime minister-in-exile, says he
                 fears that the European desire to increase trade with
south-east
                 Asia will dilute its concern about repression by the military
                 dictatorship in his country. At the EU meeting in Singapore
                 earlier this year with the Association of South East Asian
States
                 (ASEAN), EU concerns about human rights in Burma were
                 more muted than before and were expressed only on the
                 margins of the meeting, the main purpose of which was to
                 discuss trade.

                 "We are concerned that the EU position is easing already," Dr
                 Win said on his arrival in Dublin.

                 He asked to meet Mr Spring because Ireland is still part of the
                 Troika of EU states that conducts the Union's external
                 relations. "Ireland has been supportive of our cause at the
                 United Nations and elsewhere," he said.

                 Burma is currently governed by a military regime calling itself
                 the State Law and Order Restoration Council (it is known by
                 its acronym SLORC - a word pronounced in a slightly
                 contemptuous tone). The military came to power in a coup in
                 1962; in 1988 martial law was declared after pro-democracy
                 demonstrations. While subject to international disapproval,
                 Burma - renamed Myanmar by the military regime - has been
                 edging its way into the international trading system. Last
year it
                 became an associate member of the increasingly powerful
                 ASEAN trading bloc. Its ASEAN neighbours describe their
                 policy towards it as one of "constructive engagement", and
                 Burma appears to be on course for full ASEAN membership.
                 Constructive engagement involves some linkage between
                 increased trade and improvements in Burma's human rights
                 record.

                 "We cannot always see anything constructive coming from this
                 engagement," says Dr Win. "We are asking for a real
                 constructive engagement which would look at what the people
                 of Burma want, which is democracy."

                 Since 1988 the EU has stopped all development aid and
                 imposed an arms embargo and visa restrictions. "There is no
                 reason for Europe's policy to be eased," he says. "Those
                 measures were taken because of the human rights situation, and
                 the repression is getting worse, not better."

                 But he fears EU pressure will be replaced by more constructive
                 engagement. The EU sees huge potential in developing trade
                 with ASEAN. Many ASEAN states in turn have economic
                 interests in Burma, which is a source of cheap gas, timber,
                 minerals and labour.

                 In addition, according to Dr Win, they may fear the Burma
                 democracy movement because its success could influence the
                 people of other ASEAN states. While most of them call their
                 political systems democratic, they would not be recognised as
                 such in the West.

                 The pro-democracy cause in Burma has a high international
                 profile mainly because of Aung San Suu Kyi. A daughter of
                 Gen Aung San, the revered Burmese national figure who was
                 assassinated in 1947, Suu Kyi emerged from a quiet, mainly
                 domestic life in Oxford in 1988 to become the internationally
                 known spokeswoman of opposition to military rule.

                 She was on a low-profile visit to Rangoon to visit her ill
mother
                 in 1988 when anti-government demonstrations broke out. "I
                 could not, as my father's daughter, remain indifferent to
all that
                 was going on," she told a vast rally at the time.

                 She stayed in Burma, although her husband and two sons were
                 still in Oxford. In 1989 she was placed under house arrest for
                 five years. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 and
                 became the living symbol of Burma's democracy movement.
                 Her movement is so restricted still as to make the ending
of her
                 house arrest in 1995 virtually meaningless.

                 Dr Win was elected to a Burmese parliament in 1990 when the
                 National League for Democracy (NLD) won 80 per cent of
                 the vote, but the SLORC made it clear they would not
                 recognise the result. Dr Win, chosen as prime minister, and 19
                 others left the country to form a government-in-exile; two have
                 since been assassinated.

                 He and his colleagues now devote their time to lobbying the
                 international community to keep the pressure on the SLORC.
                 Within the EU, says Dr Win, Denmark is very supportive and
                 is ready to agree to impose economic sanctions. Other Nordic
                 countries are also very sympathetic. But Britain and France
                 oppose sanctions: both have significant oil interests in Burma.

                 In Ireland there is a significant level of support and
lobbying on
                 behalf of Burma's pro-democracy movement. Burma Action
                 Ireland was set up nine months ago and has been lobbying
                 trade unions and politicians of all parties to ask Dáil
questions
                 of the Minister for Foreign Affairs in connection with the
                 situation in Burma. The group has received a sympathetic
                 hearing from MEPs of all parties, and the European Parliament
                 has been supportive.

                 Trócaire, which jointly organised Dr Win's visit with Burma
                 Action Ireland, operates humanitarian assistance programmes
                 in Thailand for Burmese refugees who have come across the
                 border. Trócaire also campaigns in Ireland on the issue.