Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State back to the House. He was a Member of this House in the last Seanad, and I congratulate him on his elevation to the position of Minister of State. I wish him well in his duties.

As the Minister stated, this is an all-party motion — which is to be welcomed — supporting the oppressed people of Burma in their quest for democracy. I read with interest the speech of the Minister, Deputy Dermot Ahern, to the UN, and I compliment him on its content. All right-thinking people abhor the violent reaction of the military junta to the peaceful protests of the Burmese people, especially the Buddhist monks.

Burma remains one of the world's tragedies. A brutal dictatorship has been allowed to enslave the country for almost half a century, hold its democratically elected leader prisoner, pocket the country's resources and violently repress all attempts to demand freedom and justice. The tolerance shown to Burma contrasts with the desire of some countries for regime change in other parts of the world. Burma continues to be a prisoner of its military while the world looks on in horror, and up to recently, silently. The country has suffered with brutal regimes for most of its existence, under British rule, Japanese occupation during the Second World War, and a series of brutal military dictatorships since 1962. It is a sad fact that democracy existed in Burma only between 1948 and 1962. The military has held the democratic leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, under house arrest or worse for almost 20 years, and refuses to accept the results of a democratic election which saw her win by a landslide in 1990. I applaud Senator Norris, who raised the issue of Burma and Aung San Suu Kyi in this House many times, long before the current crisis.

The Burmese people, peacefully protesting not only about their standard of living but also about the lack of democracy and repression by the military regime, were savagely cut down by the military, whose members used live rounds, tear gas and baton charges and arrested thousands of people. The regime acknowledged 11 deaths but other estimates put the figure at more than 200, with hundreds badly injured. In the 1988 attempt at peaceful revolution the then government claimed the dead numbered only a few dozen when, in fact, more than 3,000 persons were massacred. We do not know the death toll for the current situation but we can be sure that the suffering of the Burmese people, and the Buddhist monks in particular, continues daily outside the glare of the world media.

What can we as a nation do? The Minister, Deputy Dermot Ahern, has written to his Chinese and Indian counterparts appealing to them to use their considerable influence with the military regime to end violence against peaceful protestors, to release the detainees, to set about national reconciliation and democratisation, and to co-operate with the UN. I commend the Minister also for involving our ambassadors and officials who have already made démarches to the governments of Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam seeking to address the immediate, and indeed long-term, problems of Burma.

No doubt the best way to find a sustainable solution to the crisis in Burma is to seek to maintain international focus and pressure on the issue, particularly on Burma's neighbours. The UN Security Council should be more actively involved and the Government should ensure that the EU as a body exerts as much pressure as possible also.

Ireland has no diplomatic relations with Burma and it is the Government's position that no steps will be taken to develop diplomatic relations with Burma until such time as Aung San Suu Kyi is released from detention. My party fully supports the Government's stance in this regard.

I commend the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Kitt, and his officials on the diplomatic offensive which they have undertaken to help redress this dreadful situation. I would urge the Minister of State to continue his efforts and to leave no stone unturned in assisting the Burmese people to achieve their goal of a democratic Burma free from the tyrannical dictatorship which continues to inflict so many human rights abuses on its citizens.

Senator Jerry Buttimer attended the 117th meeting of the Interparliamentary Union in Geneva on Wednesday of this week where legislators from 125 countries adopted an emergency motion calling for the urgent need to immediately stop the widespread human rights violations and to restore democratic rights to the people of Burma. This motion received comfortably the two thirds majority which was required. I would hope that this type of international pressure will yield the desired results.

I urge the Minister of State to continue his efforts in having diplomatic pressure placed on Burma and to continue his efforts with the Burmese neighbours, China in particular, to ensure that we will see a democratic Burma in the not too distant future.