Reuters-INTERVIEW-EU has conditions

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Subject: Reuters-INTERVIEW-EU has conditions for Myanmar acceptance 

INTERVIEW-EU has conditions for Myanmar acceptance
08:54 a.m. Jul 27, 1999 Eastern
SINGAPORE, July 27 (Reuters) - Myanmar must allow visits by human rights
groups and take concrete steps towards democracy before the European Union
will accept it on equal terms as other ASEAN members, the EU Council
president said on Tuesday.

Tarja Halonen, also Finland's foreign affairs minister, said the EU has set
conditions for its dealings with Myanmar that included ``the opening of the
country for UN experts and other eminent organisations'' to observe human
rights conditions.

The EU also wants ``concrete steps in the democratic process including
discussion with the opposition,'' she told Reuters in an interview.

The EU has imposed sanctions because of Myanmar's treatment of its
pro-democracy opposition led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. Her party
won the 1990 election by a landslide, but the military ignored the result
and detained many of its members.

The EU would also like to see Myanmar open up to non-governmental
organisations and a freer media, she added.

Halonen, who met with Myanmar foreign minister Win Aung in bilateral
meetings in Singapore, said she had conveyed to her counterpart what the EU
would like to see.

``I had the impression that it was understood, but it remains to be seen
which way the implementation will take,'' she said.

EU sanctions, which bar senior Myanmar officials from entering Europe,
forced cancellation of an ASEAN-EU foreign ministers' meeting earlier this
year after ASEAN said all its members should attend or none would.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations groups Brunei, Cambodia,
Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and
Vietnam.

The EU position may throw a spanner in the works for an international
roadshow that Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong has proposed the
regional grouping hold to promote investment in the area.

The EU, which discusses the status of Myanmar twice a year, will review the
country's progress at its next general affairs council meeting in September.

``No one expects any miracles,'' she said.