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EXILED PM FEARS EU MAY EASE PRESSUR
- Subject: EXILED PM FEARS EU MAY EASE PRESSUR
- From: moe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 06 Mar 1997 15:47:00
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.