Linus Atarah
HELSINKI, Aug 7 2006 (IPS) – Civil society organisations have expressed deep dissatisfaction over the invitation to Burma s military junta to attend the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) here next month.
The Asia-Europe People s Forum (AEPF), a coalition of European and Asian non- governmental organisations, says the invitation violates the European Union travel ban on Burmese officials over the human rights record of the junta.
If representatives of Burma s military junta are invited, we must call for ASEM to discuss the situation and push for democratic changes, Pietje Vervest of the Netherlands-based Transnational Institute and member of the coordinating committee of AEPF told media representatives.
It is difficult to understand why Finland, whose foreign and development policies are based on respect for human rights, should grant visas to Burma s military junta in violation of those same principles, said AEPF coordinator Anu Juvonen. Why should a major international political conference such as ASEM remain silent on human rights and democracy?
Finland, which holds the six-month rotating presidency of the EU, has said Burma s foreign minister Win Aung and some generals will attend the two-day ASEM conference Sep. 10-11. The ASEM summit is held every two years.
Hanna Lehtinen from the summit secretariat said the summit will provide us excellent opportunity for a critical and constructive dialogue with representatives of the Burma government on human rights issues.
ASEM comprises the 25 member states of the European Union, the European Commission (the executive arm of the EU), and the 10 member countries of the Association of South- East Asian Nations (ASEAN). These are Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Burma, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. China, Japan and South Korea will also be represented.
The AEPF, set up in 1996, is a forum for NGOs and civil society groups to take the voice of civil society to the official Asia-Europe summit and to provide alternatives to its neo- liberal agenda, members say.
The AEPF holds parallel meetings to the official ASEM conference. This year s AEPF meeting will be attended by more than 400 participants, including researchers, academics and international NGO activists.
The forum will take up issues of peace and security, economic security and social rights, and democracy and human rights. Burmese participation will give its rights agenda an edge.
The military junta that has ruled Burma since 1988 argues that a weak central government would lead to collapse of the state and the balkanisation of Burma, says Ko Ko Thett, a Burmese activist exiled in Finland.
Burma s 55 million people are made up of at least 10 ethnic groups, each fighting for regional autonomy and for control of its own natural resources, Thett said.
The current military government controls the people by violence but there is a more democratic way of holding power, Thett told IPS. A common understanding is emerging within Burmese opposition that a federal system would be the workable solution for the country, Thett said.
Burma is being invited under Chinese pressure, AEPF members say. Burma had been admitted into the ASEM conference in 2004 on condition that opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is released from house arrest and the country initiates a democratic process.
The Burmese military failed to comply with the conditions, and the EU further tightened sanctions that have been in force for nearly a decade, including a visa ban on the military leadership and senior members of the government.
Last year the Netherlands refused to grant a visa for Burma s finance minister to participate in a meeting. Organisers of the AEPF forum want Finland to similarly refuse visas to Burmese officials.
Tove Selin of the Finnish Asiatic Society in Helsinki told IPS that when one talks to members of parliament and officials at the ministry of foreign affairs, they all claim it is the wish of the Asian members of ASEM to include Burma. But she said the real reason could be pressure from Finnish business interests.
Finland has substantial economic and business ties with China. The mobile phone giant Nokia has large investments in China, and nearly a third of the share of the country s mobile phone market.
The next ASEM meeting will be held in China. AEPF members are concerned already about holding their own parallel summit there.
