Burma Campaign UK today called on the British government to end its policy of incrementally softening its approach towards the Burmese military regime. Instead, the British government should return to imposing sanctions to cut off sources of revenue and arms to help protect people in Burma from Burmese military attacks.
In a significant shift in approach, the British government has started inviting representatives of the Burmese military regime to meetings with government ministers and to pose for pictures with them.
On 14 October Baroness Winterton, the Foreign Office minister for Indo-Pacific who has responsibility for Burma, invited Win Zeyar Tun, Chargé d’affaires of the Burmese military-controlled embassy in London, to a meeting at the Foreign Office with ASEAN diplomats. She allowed herself to be pictured with him, handing the Burmese military a propaganda coup as they seek international legitimacy for their regime. The military-controlled Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement with pictures.
On 16 October Lord Sonny Leong at the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade invited Win Zeyar Tun, Chargé d’affaires of the Burmese military-controlled embassy in London, to a meeting with ASEAN diplomats to discuss trade issues. He was pictured with the delegation. The picture has been used by the Burmese military for propaganda purposes, with the military-controlled Ministry of Foreign Affairs releasing a statement with pictures.
Details of these meetings were released by the Burmese military regime, not the British government departments involved.
“International attention has been on US engagement with the Burmese military, but at the same time the British government appears to be quietly normalising relations with the Burmese military regime,” said Minn Tent Bo, Advocacy Officer at Burma Campaign UK. “There is clearly a policy shift happening from the British government, but they seem unwilling or unable to publicly justify why they are softening their approach to the Burmese military. The Foreign Office claims that policy is not changing, even as policy changes in front of our eyes. The meeting with Lord Leong is particularly concerning as the subject was trade promotion. The British government should be sanctioning the Burmese military, not discussing trade with them.”
Until now it has been the policy of the British government to avoid actions which infer or confer legitimacy to the Burmese military regime. While there have been meetings in the context of ASEAN, there have not been ministerial level meetings in government buildings with publicly available pictures. Government officials often try to use ASEAN as a fig leaf stating that it was ASEAN who invited Burmese military representatives, but it is still a British government decision whether to include them in meetings they host and whether to have pictures taken which include them.
The meetings appear to be part of a slow but steady shift of softening policy towards the Burmese military, with no public explanation given for why policy is changing. On 29 October it will be two years since any new sanctions against the Burmese military, despite escalating human rights violations. The British government is also softening its language towards the Burmese military, using terms such as ‘unjustly detained’ to describe political prisoners, instead of continuing to call them political prisoners. The frequency of UN Security Council meetings has also fallen; the UK is penholder on Burma at the UNSC.
The British government broke with allies in welcoming the alleged move of Aung San Suu Kyi to house arrest, other western countries instead used language such as ‘take note’, to reflect that keeping Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest is not progress or something to be welcomed.
It is not clear if the initiative for two books from King Charles being delivered to Aung San Suu Kyi was initiated by the King or part of the Foreign Office outreach to the Burmese military. Either way, it handed another propaganda opportunity to the Burmese military. The Foreign Office should be focussing on more important issues in Burma than negotiating book deliveries with a regime accused of genocide.
In the past year the Burmese military have forged ahead with a sham election and installed yet another dictatorship, led by Gen (Rtd) Min Aung Hlaing, who faces an outstanding arrest warrant for genocide and is subject to an arrest warrant request by the International Criminal Court.
His regime has not even made superficial gestures of reform and instead continues to violate international law on a daily basis. Based on data from ACLED, they carry out an airstrike every two and a half hours, deliberately targeting schools, hospitals and civilians. UN data estimates a child is killed by their attacks on average every 29 hours.
Perhaps even more damaging than the propaganda benefits the military is reaping from the meetings is the signal sent to the Burmese military. One of acceptance. That British government ministers are now willing to host a Burmese military regime representative at the department, and be pictured smiling with him, even as they bomb, kill and rape, will be interpreted by the Burmese military as a sign of acceptance. They will believe that they can continue to commit these atrocities and not face any consequences.
“Inviting a representative of the Burmese military regime to meetings at government departments and being pictured with them is not critical engagement, it is normalisation and acceptance of the military regime,” said Minn Tent Bo. “The British government keep saying it stands with the people of Burma, but they ignore our calls for new sanctions and instead are literally standing with representatives of the Burmese military.”
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