NEWS - European Office for the Deve

[Rangoonp@xxxxxxx]

Subject: NEWS - European Office for the Development of Democracy in Burma

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EURO-BURMA OFFICE - July 12, 1999

European Office for the Development of Democracy in Burma

EU MISSION TO RANGOON

A European Union mission visited Rangoon 5 July 1999. The mission
included a
senior official from Finland (representing the EU Presidency as of 1
July
1999), Portugal (representing the EU Presidency from 1 January 2000),
the
Secretariat of the European Council of Ministers, and the European
Commission.

According to limited information made known to the media, the objective
of
the mission is to explore ways to re-establish EU-Myanmar dialogue with
a
view to persuading the Burmese military dictatorship to improve its
human
rights record; persuading the junta to begin substantive political
dialogue
with the National League for Democracy led by Aung San Suu Kyi; and
improving EU-ASEAN ties which has been at its lowest level ever since
Burma
joined ASEAN in July 1997.

The EU mission met with Lt.Gen.Khin Nyunt, Secretary 1 of the ruling
State
Peace and Development Council (SPDC) and the regime's head of
Intelligence;
Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi; Khun Tun Oo, head of the Shan
National League for Democracy, the party which won the second largest
number
of parliamentary seats in the 1990 general elections; and Col.Thein Swe,
head of the regime's Office of Strategic Studies.

On 9 July, SPDC's Foreign Minister Win Aung said that neither the EU
mission
nor Nelson Mandela had offered to mediate to resolve the deadlock
between
the military and the democracy movement despite recent press reports.
"We
are trying to solve the problems by peaceful means by ourselves," he
said.

Comment:
The fact that the Finnish Presidency has put Burma on the top of its
priority list is a major step forward for the cause of democracy in
Burma.

The timing of the EU mission just prior to the EU's meeting with the
Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) underlines the serious
negative impact Burma's membership in ASEAN has had on EU-ASEAN ties.
The
issue of Burma, therefore, can no longer be ignored by ASEAN, and is a
positive development.

This is the first time in two years that such a senior EU mission has
been
allowed to visit Burma. Given the EU and US ban on visas for senior SPDC
members and their families, the Burmese military has in retaliation
consistently denied visas to senior officials of the EU and US
governments.
It is also significant that the military agreed to the EU mission
meeting
both Aung San Suu Kyi and Khun Tun Oo. Regarding dialogue, we agree with
NLD
vice Chairman, Tin Oo, who commented, "There will be dialogue - nobody
can
avoid it. It is the solution."