Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)

I welcome the time we have, however brief, to discuss the appalling tragedy that is unfolding in Burma. Given the time allotted, I must be succinct and so will offer a set of suggestions. We must establish how many people have died and how many have been injured. We must follow up BBC reports and find out the whereabouts of 4,000 monks who were arrested in Rangoon, removed to two places of detention, disrobed and manacled. It is reported that they are likely to be removed to northern parts of Burma.

We need to move beyond the mantra of the EU and its governments that amounted to a belief in constructive engagement. This meant one could continue to engage with the junta that was practising widespread abuses of human rights while imagining that gradual progress was possible. This policy has not worked, nor have sanctions been imposed by the EU because it is clear that the benefits derived by India, China, Thailand and others involved in the rape of Burma's resources undo any possible effects of such measures.

Up to 800,000 people in Burma may have endured forced labour at some point and there are also issues relating to the forced relocation of people. Ethnic minorities endure appalling treatment and the country has put up its shutters to the rest of the world. In 1988 3,000 people were massacred and most human rights organisations suggested the situation deteriorated again in 1996. Burma behind the Mask, edited by Jan Donkers and Minka Nijhuis, published in 1996, may be the best account, from within, of what took place.

The international community has been silent on Burma and this has been compounded by economic benefits derived by its neighbours. This cannot continue. Facilitating the junta at the Association of South East Asian Nations, ASEAN, meeting was a miscalculation, though it may have been made for the best of reasons by those who believed in constructive dialogue. The anticipated results have not occurred and I therefore believe that an international group should now be established to visit Burma. The EU should seek permission for a group to visit Burma to establish how many people have died, how many have been injured, how many of the 4,000 monks arrested in Rangoon have been relocated, the details of people who have endured forced labour and the position of the various ethnic and indigenous groups there. The worst that can happen is permission will be refused and that at least means the issue will stay alive.

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