Benita Ferrero-Waldner

External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy

European Commission

Rue de la Loi 170

1049 Bruxelles

 

Fax: 02/298.86.46 – 12.99

TUR/JK                                                                                                                    31 March 2005

Burma Day 2005

Dear Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner

The ETUC, ICFTU and WCL are writing to you on the subject of the “Burma Day 2005” being organized on 5 April by the European Commission. 

 

We would like to preface our remarks by emphasizing that we applaud your commitment to democracy, human rights and the rule of law as essential building blocks for regional security, which you articulated in Jakarta on 10 March 2005 in the context of EU-ASEAN relations. We share your view that Burma is a serious security threat because it is the exception to the regional trend of democratization and integration.

 

We are therefore surprised by the way in which the European Commission has organized Burma Day 2005 on 5 April, and are writing to express our concern, particularly by comparison with earlier such EU initiatives. For instance, Burma Day 2003 was an excellent opportunity for the Commission and stakeholders - foreign ministries, aid agencies, non-government organizations and Burmese groups - to have a dialogue on the need to deliver humanitarian aid to the people of Burma despite the political roadblocks.

We had understood that Burma Day 2005, would further look at how humanitarian

aid could be delivered and used to strengthen civil society in Burma. We would have welcomed such an initiative. We were therefore deeply concerned when we learned that Robert Taylor and Morten Pedersen had been commissioned to deliver a report titled 'Supporting Burma/Myanmar's National Reconciliation Process - Challenges and Opportunities". Neither has any experience in delivering humanitarian aid or working with civil society in Burma.

 

Robert Taylor is well-known as an apologist for the Burmese military regime[1].  The New Light of Myanmar on 22 March 2005 quoted Taylor's interview on the BBC to justify the exclusion of the National League of Democracy from the current National Convention in Rangoon. Basically, Taylor had said that the 1990 election victory of the NLD was no longer valid and could be ignored.  Such a position is at variance with those of both the UN – restated by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on 18 February 2005, when he said that the outcome of the SPDC National Convention cannot be deemed to be valid without the participation of the NLD and leaders of the ethnic nationalities – and the Council of the European Union on 16 February 2005, when it stated that the participation of the NLD in the National Convention is necessary to bring peace and development to Burma.

 

Taylor and Pedersen were commissioned by the European Commission to analyze the situation, assess needs and make recommendations. There is no argument about the facts they presented. Their analysis, however, is totally unbalanced. They blame 'wrong' EU policies for the failure of the military regime to reform without substantiating any of their claims. They then spend about half the report trying to argue for a lifting of EU sanctions and for engaging with the generals without giving any consideration to present realities. It is unfortunate that they did not use this opportunity to break new ground and really examine what could be done. Instead, their arguments are a rehash of ones that have been around for at least a decade.

 

The Commission seems to have further compounded the situation by allowing Taylor and Pedersen to design the agenda for Burma Day 2005. Burmese democracy advocates observe that the meeting seems to have been organized in a similar way to how the military junta in Burma has organized its National Convention. Burma Day will be dominated by hand-picked delegates with a biased and political anti-sanctions agenda. Dissenting voices have been excluded. Not only have many Burma NGOs and democracy organizations not been given equal participation on panels, we understand that they have not even been invited to take part.  A last-minute invitation to the Director of the Euro-Burma Office to participate on a panel after a protest was lodged will perhaps provide Burma Day 2005 with a token alternative view.

 

The invitation to Derek Tonkin to be on the panel to discuss the report is frankly

bizarre. His most recent diplomatic experience relating to Burma was, reportedly, from 1963 to 1966 as a desk officer. Tonkin is a fierce critic of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma's democracy movement. He is a former investor in Burma and has described human rights in Burma as a 'luxury'. He has regularly criticised ICFTU statements and policies on Burma, particularly its calls for disinvestment as a way to pressure the junta into abandonning the system of forced labour. Also on the panel is Kyaw Yin Hlaing of the University of Singapore, another well-known opponent of sanctions.

 

Our concerns are compounded by the disappointing attitude adopted by the European Union during the discussion of the Burma issue at the 292nd session of the ILO Governing Body, last week in Geneva, when the EU once more postponed its decision on whether to support international trade union calls for a revision of measures adopted in June 2000 by the ILO Conference under art. 33 of the ILO Constitution.

 

We would welcome a genuine discussion on how humanitarian work can be carried out in Burma, but it seems that this is not what will happen on Burma Day 2005. Once again we would reiterate our concern; our hope that the Commission will even now seek to add further objective and independent speakers to the programme; and our expectation that the Commission will ensure that biased events of this kind are not allowed to happen again.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

                          

           Guy Ryder                                      John Monks                             Willy Thys

    General Secretary                           General Secretary                  General Secretary

              ICFTU                                              ETUC                                      WCL


[1] List of recent articles/report/seminars where the EU report authors and invited panelists for Burma Day 2005, have called for a lifting of sanctions against the Burmese regime:

 

-         Seminar on "Reconciling Burma/Myanmar: Reexamining US Relations with Burma", December 2004. Participants included: Morten B Pedersen and Robert H Taylor.

-          NBR Analysis - "Reconciling Burma/Myanmar: Essay on U.S. Relations with Burma", March 2004.  Contributors included: Kyaw Yin Hlaing, Morten B Pedersen and Robert H Taylor.

-         "Burma: Reconciliation in Myanmar and the Crises of Change", November 2002. Participants included - Debbie Aung Din Taylor, Bradley Babson, Kyaw Yin Hlaing, Morten B Pedersen, and Robert H Taylor.