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.