Democracy groups banned from meeting
MEPs demand enquiry
The Burma Campaign UK today condemned the European Commission for banning pro-democracy organisations from a European Union conference on democracy in Burma.
EU ‘Burma Day’, held in Brussels on Tuesday 5th April, is meant to be discussing prospects for democratic change in military run Burma. Instead the Commission has packed the conference with anti-sanctions lobbyists, and banned Burmese activists and democracy organisations from taking part.
Glenys Kinnock MEP called for the meeting to be abandoned. “I am deeply concerned that the Commission has organised a meeting on democracy in Burma in such an anti-democratic and blatantly biased manner. This initiative does, it seems, represent a clear shift in the EC’s position on Burma and does not reflect the agreed position of the Council of the EU or of the European Parliament. This meeting should be abandoned and an enquiry held into its organisation. We deserve an explanation of why a small and unrepresentative band of anti-sanctions lobbyists have been given free reign, while at the same time pro-democracy groups and the Burmese community have been excluded. A belated invitation to the Director of the Euro-Burma Office to take part in a panel discussion reflects, in my view, a wish to provide the Commission with a fig leaf to cover what are crass and unacceptable proposals to engage with the military junta in Rangoon.”
“The Commission seems to have taken ‘Burma Day’ too literally,” says John Jackson, Director of The Burma Campaign UK. “It has arranged this meeting the same way that the military Junta in Burma organises its conferences. Burma Day will be dominated by hand-picked delegates with a biased and political anti-sanctions agenda. Dissenting voices have been excluded, and the outcome already decided.”
“The irony is that just when South East Asia is starting to realise that ‘constructive engagement’ has been tried, tested, and failed on every occasion for a decade, this small group of pro-engagement lobbyists, blind to the facts, are given a platform by the Commission. The EU’s ‘Burma Day’ seems more like a meeting of the flat earth society.”
The Burmese democracy movement is united in its call for targeted economic sanctions, with Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, ethnic political parties, the government in exile and the Burmese trade union movement all asking for sanctions. Their request has the support of a wide range of international politicians, economists and businesspeople, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel prize winning economist Amartya Sen, and billionaire financier George Soros.
The European Union has a common foreign policy on Burma, and last year imposed a limited investment ban on Burma. A small but vocal group of anti-sanctions lobbyists are calling on the European Union to abandon its support for Burma’s democracy movement and give financial support to the regime. EU member states have so far ignored their demands, but the Commission appears to be promoting this position. It does not seem possible it could have arranged such a biased meeting by mistake, leading to speculation that there is a hidden agenda within the Commission.
“The Commission appears to be pursuing an anti-sanctions agenda in direct contradiction to EU member states policy,” said John Jackson. “They have commissioned two anti-sanctions lobbyists to prepare a so-called independent report, and filled the conference with anti-sanctions speakers. The Commission is attempting to change European Union foreign policy, and that is not its role.”
Burma Day will start with the presentation of an unbalanced report that is highly critical of sanctions, and promotes engagement with the regime. The report is by Robert Taylor and Morten Pedersen, longstanding opponents of sanctions, and regular visitors to Rangoon. Another participant, former British diplomat Derek Tonkin, can only have been chosen to speak because of his opposition to sanctions, given that his most recent diplomatic experience relating to Burma was as a desk officer in London in 1966. Many of the rest of the day’s speakers are also anti-sanctions. Only one token speaker represents Burma’s democracy movement, and he was only invited following complaints about bias.
For more information contact John Jackson, Director, on 020 7324 4712, or Mark Farmaner, Media Manager, on 020 7324 4713.
NOTES TO EDITORS:
Background on Burma
Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), won 82% of the seats in the elections in 1990, but the regime refused to hand over power and instead imprisoned and tortured NLD members. Amnesty International and the United Nations have reported a deteriorating human rights situation in Burma in the past year. Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest following a brutal crackdown and massacre of up to 100 of her supporters in May 2003. More than half the population of Burma lives in extreme poverty, while at the same time the regime spends around half of its budget on the military.
Sanctions History
There is a perception that sanctions have been tried and have failed, but in fact the opposite is true. The past 15 years has seen massive foreign investment in Burma and a policy of engagement pursued by neighbouring countries. This policy of engagement has failed. Benefits of foreign investment and trade have not reached most ordinary Burmese people, and in fact poverty has increased and health spending has fallen. There has not been a single political democratic reform.
An international sanctions policy against Burma has not yet been attempted. The USA is the only country that has imposed effective sanctions on Burma. It banned new investment in 1997 and banned imports in 2003. The EU imposed a limited investment ban in 2004, but the British government has admitted that no investment has been effected. This is largely because France vetoed more effective sanctions in order to protect French Oil giant TOTAL. There are no United Nations sanctions against Burma, not even an arms embargo.