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Editorial & Opinion :Sanctions on B
- Subject: Editorial & Opinion :Sanctions on B
- From: suriya@xxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 06 Oct 1998 17:00:00
Editorial & Opinion
REGIONAL
PERSPECTIVE: Sanctions
on Burma must continue
THE deteriorating political situation in
Burma has prompted the United Nations,
key Western countries and European
Community as well as Asean to look for
ways to break the current deadlock.
The current United Nations General
Assembly is preparing a resolution on
Burma, which is expected to be harsher
than the previous year's given the prevailing
conditions there. The draft will be ready in a
couple of weeks and will be deliberated in
early November.
Earlier, UN Secretary-General Koffi Annan
had appointed Malaysian veteran diplomat,
Ismail Razali, former envoy to the UN
headquarters in New York, as a special
envoy to Burma. In appointing Razali,
Annan hoped that the envoy could break the
current stalemate and visit Burma. Before
the UN chief settled for Razali, he
approached the outgoing Filipino President
Fidel Ramos for this important job, but
Ramos declined. The name of former prime
minister Anand Panyarachun was also
mentioned as a possible envoy, but in the
end Anand was not approached.
Annan and his UN political staff have been
concerned with the growing suppression
inside Burma and would like to have its
officials inside Burma to assess the latest
situation before the UN resolution is
completed and have urged both sides to
begin serious dialogue of national
reconciliation.
But Burma refused to allow Razali to enter
the country. However, of late there is an
indication that the junta leaders would allow
UN Secretary for Political Affairs, Alvaro de
Soto, to visit Burma as the
Secretary-General's representative. Annan
needs to submit a report to the current
session of the Commission on Human
Rights on the situation in Burma.
Across the Atlantic, the European
Community will have to decide by Oct 29 if
the current two-year-old sanctions will
continue or intensify. EU foreign ministers
have already warned that they would
impose harsher sanctions if the political
situation there worsens and more
opposition representatives are taken
behind bar. The Burmese junta leaders
have been arresting numerous opposition
members including nearly 200 elected
representatives.
As part of the effort to find a solution to the
situation in Burma, British Minister of State,
Derek Fatchett , has called for a two-day
closed door meeting in London on Oct
12-13. The meeting will be attended by top
level officials and diplomats from EU, US,
Japan, South Korea, Asean as well as the
UN. It hopes to find ways to encourage both
sides to begin a dialogue.
Within Asean, as co-ordinator for
Asean-EU co-operation, Thailand
continues to work with the EU to find a
suitable way out so that Asean-EU
co-operation could proceed without any
impediments. EU refused to sign a protocol
with Burma, Asean's newest member, that
will permit the country to accede to the
1980 Asean-EU agreement because of the
human rights violations in Burma.
Before the just concluded German election,
Asean had high hopes that the current
acrimony over Burma between Asean and
EU would end once Germany takes over
the EU presidency from Austria next
January. The outgoing foreign minister
Klaus Kinkle had a good rapport with the
Asean foreign ministers and he hoped to
play a mediating role on both sides. He
was instrumental in improving Asean-EU
ties in 1994 at the Karlruhe meeting in
Germany. Asean wished that he could
perform the same role at the next
Asean-EU ministerial meeting.
But with the new German Cabinet in the
making, it is highly possible that the Green
Party leader, Joschka Fischer, could
succeed Kinkle. Fischer would have a
different style of diplomacy and advocacy
which could affect Bonn's stand on Burma
and the rest of EU.
This subtle shift would toughen further the
international stand on Burma, which has
been consolidated since the bridge
stand-off between Aung San Suu Kyi and
the Burmese junta leaders in July. Sensing
a more active international support and
need to apply further pressure on the junta,
on Sept 17 the opposition formed a
committee to act as a new parliament with
those who were elected in 1990, when the
opposition won the election landslide.
Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has
appealed to all democratically elected
parliaments of the world to give due
recognition to the committee and support
its work.
If the current Asean-EU freeze continues,
Asean will be under increased pressure to
bring about positive changes inside Burma.
Some of the Asean leaders have been
concerned about the political repression
inside Burma. They have discussed ways
to start a dialogue between the opposition
and the Burmese junta.
However, the international effort, they
realised, would not produce any result if
China, the country with the most influence in
Burma, is not on board. Diplomats in
Thailand and Jakarta believe that Asean
can still persuade China to take part in the
national reconciliation effort in Burma.
Beijing has maintained strong and cordial
relations with Rangoon.
Asean admitted Burma last year because it
feared growing Chinese influence in
Southeast Asia. The Asean leaders thought
that bringing Burma into Asean would help
contain China's southward influence. But
that has not happened. In fact, the Asean
concern remains there, even though Beijing
has improved ties with Asean by leaps and
bounds.
If the international support for Suu Kyi
remains solid, including possible
recognition of her new committee, pressure
on Asean will continue to grow to improve
the situation in Burma either on its own or
with China's co-operation.
BY KAVI CHONGKITTAVORN