NEWS - SOUTH AFRICAN CONGRESS DISGU

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Subject: NEWS - SOUTH AFRICAN CONGRESS DISGUSTED BY PARTICIPATION OF MYANMAR IN EXPO

SOUTH AFRICAN CONGRESS DISGUSTED BY PARTICIPATION OF MYANMAR IN EXPO

(TRADE EXPO ORGANISERS DEFEND PARTICIPATION OF MYANMAR )
JOHANNESBURG October 19 1999 Sapa

    Myanmar had full diplomatic relations with South Africa and was
therefore eligible to participate in the SA International Trade
    Exhibition (Saitex) despite calls for its expulsion because of its
human rights record, exhibition director Johan Theron said on
    Tuesday. 

    Theron was reacting to demands by the Congress of South African
Trade Unions and the SA Communist Party on Tuesday that the
    government and the private sector cut all ties with the south Asian
country because of human rights abuses in Myanmar, formerly
    known as Burma. 

    Cosatu and the SACP objected to the presence of Myanmar
representatives at Saitex in Johannesburg and criticised Theron for
    remarks that Saitex organisers were pleased to have attracted
Myanmar and that this was seen as a breakthrough. 

    Theron said the only prerequisite for a country to participate in
Saitex was diplomatic links with South Africa. 

    He told Sapa that Saitex did not invite Myanmar or any other country
to participate in the fair. 

    "Countries who wish to participate have to approach us if they want
to come," he said. 

    "The Myanmar government approached us because they said they would
like to expose their country to South Africa and
    Sub-Saharan Africa. 

    "We do not necessarily have to apply for permission on who we may or
may not accept," Theron said. 

    Foreign Affairs spokesman Daniel Ngwepe on Tuesday confirmed that
Myanmar had enjoyed diplomatic relations with South Africa
    since the ANC-led government came to power in 1994. 

    Myanmar established an office in South Africa at the end of 1996.
South Africa reciprocated at the beginning of this year by
    designating its ambassador in Bangkok, Thailand, to also handle
Myanmar. 

    Theron said Saitex was a commercial exercise which specialised in
running exhibitions. "We have no political motives for accepting
    or not accepting a country that approaches us to exhibit at Saitex,"
Theron said. 

    The trade exhibition, with 800 exhibitors, was officially opened on
Tuesday and will continue until Saturday. Forty two countries
    including China, the USA, Portugal, Nigeria, Namibia, Zimbabwe and
Uganda, are represented. 

    Myanmar was given its name by the military junta which overthrew the
country's democratically elected government in 1990. 

    The SACP said earlier on Tuesday that to promote trade and economic
relations with the military junta, was to prop up a regime that
    was no different from the apartheid regime. 

    It said South African business could not afford to make the same
mistake twice. 

    It accused the junta, which forcibly overthrew and repressed the
previous democratic government, of being guilty of forced slave
    labour, child labour, extra-judicial killings and the suppression of
basic human rights. 

    It had banned all opposition political and labour organisations, and
held Nobel Laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi, under house arrest for
    several years. 

    The SACP said the Myanmar junta represented one of the most
repressive, corrupt and immoral "governments" anywhere in the
    world. 

    The presence of any of its representatives in South Africa was an
affront to the dignity and struggles of the Burmese people as well
    as to South Africa?s own principles of respect for human rights,
justice and democracy. 

    "The SACP calls for all political, economic and trade ties with the
Burmese junta to be halted with immediate effect," the party said. 

    Cosatu in turn said it was shocked by the presence of Myanmar's
trade representatives at Saitex and believed that South Africa
    should cut all ties with the Myanmar regime. 

    The trade union also called for the expulsion of the regime's
representatives from the exhibition. 


source: gopher://gopher.anc.org.za/00/anc/newsbrief/1999/news1020 
processed Wed 20 Oct 1999 08:38 SAST.