Brussels, 26/07/2001 (Agence Europe) - During the meeting of the ASEAN regional forum in Hanoi, the Belgian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Louis Michel reaffirmed that the European Union expects additional efforts from Burma to restore democracy. We must see that it moves further in the direction of democracy than the freeing of a few political prisoners, he said when insisting on the fact that the Burmese junta must respect the victory won in the 1990 election by the head of the opposition party Aung San Suu Kyi. The EU already indicated that it would like to send another fact-finding mission to Burma in the autumn. EUROPE recalls that the first mission already went there last January and that the European Union continues to maintain sanctions, including in particular a visa ban against the members o0f the Burmese junta. The Burmese Minister for Foreign Affairs, Win Aung has reaffirmed, on Tuesday in Hanoi, that the freeing of political prisoners is not a public relations coup and does not have as aim to gain the lifting of sanctions imposed on Burma by the European Union.
Burma was the main theme of this meeting between the ASEAN and the EU, which also raised the situation in Indonesia and East Timor. Mr Michel hoped that a note inviting Burma to respect human rights and democracy would be included in the final declaration, which must be approved on Friday morning. Louis Michel and Commissioner Chris Patten held a series of bilateral meetings and the EU Troika (Belgian Presidency, Commission and Spain) met the Minister for Foreign Affairs of South Korea, Han Seung-Soo. They notably raised the latest developments in inter-Korean relations.