Asia-Europe Summit Can Help Burma

By DAVID CRONIN / IPS WRITER

BRUSSELS — By the end of this week Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi will have spent 13 years under house arrest. By coincidence, the anniversary of her incarceration (October 24) falls when the military junta will be represented in a summit between Asian and European leaders in Beijing.

The question of Burma’s participation in the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) has been the most contentious issue that this process of dialogue has encountered since it was established in 1996. The European Union was initially opposed to any Burmese involvement unless preceded by the release of political prisoners and democratic reforms.

Yet despite the absence of such reforms, the EU agreed in 2004 that Burma could take part, alongside the other nine members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean)—Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.

Mark Farmaner from the Burma Campaign in Britain believes that Burmese participation has "produced absolutely nothing" in concrete terms. "In fact, it has got worse," he added, pointing to a doubling in the number of political prisoners, a tightening of censorship and the refusal of humanitarian assistance for victims of Cyclone Nargis earlier this year.

Nonetheless, Farmaner said that both EU and Asian governments should use the summit to urge Ban Ki-Moon, the United Nations Secretary-General, to insist on the release of all political prisoners when he visits Burma in December. "If dialogue with the generals is ever going to work, this is when it can work," he said, adding that it is unprecedented for the secretary-general to engage in high-level discussions with the regime.

Last month Burma released seven political activists from jail, including Win Tin, a close ally of Suu Kyi, who had been in captivity since 1989. But the authorities also arrested another 39 activists. In total, Burma has over 2,100 political prisoners, about 800 of whom were detained following the so-called ‘Saffron Revolution’, as protests by Buddhist monks in 2007 came to be known.

Geoffrey Barrett, an advisor on relations with Asia to the European Commission, said that there was a "time when Burma/Myanmar dominated" discussions held as part of the ASEM process. "Now the topic is dealt with in a very frank and open way, with a representative of that country present," he said. "This betokens maturity."

While China has strong economic ties with Burma, it supported UN statements calling for an improvement to the country’s human rights record last year.

Xing Hua, a professor in the Chinese Institute for International Studies, said: "Burma has internal difficulties. If we are more patient and more skilful, I believe we can help to seek a fair solution to their internal problems."

Yeo Lay Hwee, a researcher at the Singapore Institute of International Relations, said that the EU decided a few years ago to adopt "a more pragmatic approach" to Burma on the grounds "it is better to engage with them than leave them out." But she added that "Asians are just as interested as Europeans to talk about how we can deal with this problem."

Preparations for the summit were debated at an event in Brussels this week organized by the European Policy Centre, a think-tank.

Yeo told the meeting that while the membership of ASEM has grown from 27 to 45 countries, it "still remains" an instrument of dialogue that has not yet evolved into a forum for more structured cooperation between the two continents.

She contended, however, that ASEM can be useful for "testing ideas", suggesting that it should use the international financial crisis as an opportunity to examine such matters as the need for reforming the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

Asia has been somewhat marginalized by these bodies, which have been dominated by Europe and the US since their inception in the 1940s. With a combined population of about 27 million, Belgium and the Netherlands control more votes in the IMF than India and China, each of which is home to more than one billion people.

Barrett admitted that the financial crisis will overshadow the summit.

But, Barret expressed hope that there will be a fruitful debate on how Europe and Asia can cooperate in addressing climate change, so that "an ambitious and comprehensive agreement" will be reached in 2009. He was referring to UN-sponsored talks, due to conclude in Copenhagen late next year, on a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol, the main international accord on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Barrett recognized that ASEM is overlooked by the media but that it "pops up like the Loch Ness monster when there is a summit". He argued, too, that the summit should address issues deemed sensitive in Asia such as conditions for workers and freedom of expression. This is especially important, he suggested, given that the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights occurs in December.

"I don’t think we should have taboo topics in ASEM," he said. "The dialogue should have attained the level where we don’t have taboo topics anymore."