EU says policy toward Myanmar stays unchanged

EU says policy toward Myanmar stays unchanged

BANGKOK (AFP): The European Union's policy of keeping Myanmar at arm's length will remain unchanged as long as human rights violations continue, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and external relations commissioner Chris Patten said on Wednesday.

"EU sanctions will continue until Myanmar's rulers address their human rights abuses," said Patten, considered an expert on Asian affairs, in Bangkok to attend the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) meeting. "There's no question of ganging up on Burma. This is just an effort to convince Burma's (Myanmar) regime to change the error of their ways."

"We have not changed our position from the position we had before," the former NATO secretary general told reporters on Wednesday after delivering a speech in Singapore.

"I think that everything has been tried ... it has not changed," said Solana.

Despite its ban on contacts with senior members of the military junta that rules Myanmar, the EU is taking part in the ARF, at which Myanmar will also be represented as an ASEAN member.

The EU and Myanmar have been at loggerheads for nearly four years.

In October 1996, the EU adopted economic sanctions as a protest against Myanmar's reported human rights abuses.

The EU also generally bars its member nations from giving visas to high-level officials of the Yangon military regime.

The EU has frequently criticized Myanmar for alleged human rights abuses including the use of forced labor, repression of ethnic minorities and iron control over media outlets.

Relations between the EU and ASEAN have been chilly since Myanmar joined the Southeast Asian organization, but Patten vowed that Myanmar would not "take EU-ASEAN relations hostage" any longer.

The EU and ASEAN will be holding a ministerial-level meeting in Laos late in 2000 designed to restore warm relations between the two organizations.

And the EU will continue to provide humanitarian aid to Myanmar, even if Aung San Suu Kyi opposes the aid, Patten said.

"We don't allow our political disapproval of Burma's government and the way it behaves to affect humanitarian aid," he said.

"Nobody, not even Aung San Suu Kyi, has a veto on humanitarian assistance, though obviously we have to take into account an NGOs ability to deliver assistance."

ASEAN groups all ten countries in the region: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.