Noel Treacy (Galway East, Fianna Fail)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 7, 24, 29, 67 and 74 together.

The Government has consistently condemned the lack of progress towards democracy in Burma and the continuing abuse of human rights and fundamental freedoms in that country. Together with our EU partners, we remain gravely concerned about the continuing house arrest of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, other opposition activists and a number of MPs elected in 1990.

On 2 December 2004, the Minister for Foreign Affairs issued a statement condemning the decision of the Burmese Government to extend the detention under house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi for another year. The Minister also called on the Burmese authorities to allow the special envoy of the Secretary General, Razali Ismail, to travel to Burma at the earliest opportunity, including for the purpose of visiting Aung San Suu Kyi. The EU Presidency issued a similar statement on 10 December 2004.

On 2 March 2005, the Minister for Foreign Affairs met Harn Yawnghwe, Director of the European Office for the Development of Democracy in Burma, which is a joint project of the European Commission and the Olaf Palme International Centre of Sweden. Mr. Yawnghwe was accompanied by members of Burma Action Ireland. The meeting provided a useful opportunity to reiterate the Government's position in support of democracy, human rights and national reconciliation in Burma and also to detail Ireland's response to the impact in that country of the recent tsunami. The discussions also looked forward to the EU-ASEAN foreign ministers meeting scheduled for later that month.

I represented Ireland at this meeting which was held in Jakarta from 10 to 11 March 2005. The meeting included a frank exchange of views on the situation in Burma. Together with my EU colleagues, I was the first speaker to call for the immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi, the re-opening of all National League for Democracy offices and the full involvement of all opposition parties and ethnic groups in the work of the National Convention which had resumed deliberations on 17 February 2005 but without participation by the opposition. Ireland and our EU partners again urged Burma to allow full access to the special representative of the UN Secretary General who last visited that country in March 2004.

Unfortunately, the National Convention, in the absence of the main opposition, lacked credibility and it was adjourned on 31 March 2005 by the Burmese authorities to an unspecified date in the autumn. On 14 April 2005, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights passed without a vote a resolution introduced by the EU and co-sponsored by Ireland criticising systematic violation of human rights in Burma, calling for the restoration of democracy and freedom for all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi. When the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, met the Burmese Prime Minister, Than Shwe, during the Asia-Africa summit in Jakarta on 23 April 2005, he repeated the concern of the international community about the detention of Aung San Suu Kyi and the need for democratic reform.

In response to the lack of progress in Burma, on 25 April 2005, the General Affairs and External Relations Council agreed to extend the EU Common Position on Burma for a further 12 months. The Common Position includes a visa ban on named senior members of the Burmese regime and members of their families aged over 18 years as well as a freeze on all their financial assets in the European Union. It also prohibits EU-registered companies from financing loans to named Burmese state-owned enterprises. The forthcoming ASEM, Asia-Europe foreign ministers' meeting, which is scheduled for 6 to 7 May 2005 in Kyoto, will provide an early opportunity to reiterate EU concerns about the situation in Burma to the Burmese authorities and their Asian neighbours.

While the members of ASEAN generally defend the principle of non-interference in each other's internal affairs, concern that the rotating chairmanship of the organisation is due to be held by Burma in 2006 has been growing among a number of its members. The ASEAN foreign ministers held an informal meeting in the Philippines on 11 and 12 April and agreed to defer a decision on this issue until their formal ministerial meeting in Laos in July. On 20 April 2005, the Philippines Senate unanimously approved a resolution that Burma should not assume the chairmanship of ASEAN in 2006 unless there had been an improvement in the human rights situation, including the freeing of Aung San Suu Kyi. Ireland and our EU partners, however, wish to see Burma's neighbours pressing much more strongly for progress towards democracy in that country.

The EU will now await the outcome of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers meeting in Laos in July before taking a decision on the question of the Union's presence or otherwise at the Asia Regional Forum and ASEAN post-ministerial meetings during 2006. We are aware that the United States indicated last year that it would not attend ASEAN-related meetings with Burma in the chair. However, it is appropriate in the context of EU-ASEAN relations to allow for further discussion of this issue in ASEAN before coming to a decision on the EU's position. Regarding the outcome of the National Convention, now standing adjourned once more, it is clear that an eventual outcome falling short of minimum democratic standards would not be acceptable to Ireland or the EU.

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