Brussels, 01/09/2004 (Agence Europe) - The members of the European Parliament's Committee on Development have called on the EU not to take part in the ASEM Summit to which Burma is also invited. This comes as a response to the request made by Thaung Htun who represents the exiled Burmese government (see EUROPE of 28 August, p.3, on the subject of the Dutch Presidency's attempts to reach a compromise on the summit scheduled to take place in Hanoi on 7 October). Brad Adams of Human Rights Watch above all denounced the continued violation of human rights in Myanmar, exaction suffered by non-ethnic Burmese, the use of rape as a political weapon and the presence of 70,000 child soldiers in an army of 250,000. Fifty percent of the budget goes to the armed forces, and 5% to health. "The population is poor but the generals are rich", Mr Adams insists, also recalling that Myanmar is one of the main heroine exporters in the world.
Kyaaw Wynn, Ambassador for Myanmar, retorted that democratisation of his country should be speeded up thanks to the work currently being carried out by the national Conference. He felt that the role of the army in Burma is the heritage of the colonial period (described by British Conservative Nirj Deva as "post-1948 paranoia").
French Socialist Marie-Arlette Carlotti, for her part, calls on all French MEPs to write a joint letter to Michel Barnier to express their misgivings about the attitude adopted by the French government, which does not seem to refuse the possibility of an Asem Summit with Myanmar. Dutch Socialist Max van den Berg, for his part, called on the Parliament to write to the Dutch Presidency to ask him not to allow EU participation at the Hanoi Summit if the Burmese junta is there.