Written Answers. - Burma Human Rights Abuses.
Eoin Ryan
Question:
57
Mr. E. Ryan
asked the
Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs
whether he has raised the issue of human rights abuses in Burma/Myanmar at EU. UN or any other level; and if so, if he will make a statement on the matter.
[10740/96]
The Government are very concerned at the deplorable human rights situation which has obtained in Burma since the assumption of power by the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) in 1988, and have pursued the matter both within the European Union and at the United Nations. On 27 May 1996 I issued a statement expressing the Government's concern at the most recent round of detentions by Burma's military regime in advance of the Congress of the National League for Democracy.
Developments in Burma are followed very closely within the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the EU and action taken accordingly. Since 1988, the EU has suspended all but humanitarian aid to Burma, including the discontinuation or limitation of aid through UN Agencies. A policy of international isolation has been applied strictly, blocking even World Bank, International Monetary Fund and Asian Development Bank Funds for projects or programmes in or loans to Burma.
In December 1995, on the occasion of the ASEAN Summit in Bangkok, to which SLORC leaders had been invited, the European Union issued a statement which, while welcoming the release of opposition leader and Nobel Prize Laureate, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, urged SLORC to start a true and meaningful dialogue with the opposition.
At United Nations' level Ireland has taken an active role in cosponsoring resolutions on the human rights situation in Burma, both at the UN General Assembly and at the UN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR). On 24 April 1996, the UNCHR adopted a resolution, cosponsored by Ireland, which deplored the continuing serious violations of human rights in Burma and the fact that many political leaders, including leaders and elected representatives of the National League for Democracy are being deprived of their freedom and their fundamental rights. The resolution also called on the Government of Burma to take all necessary measures to establish a democratic State in full accordance with the will of the people, as expressed in the democratic elections held in 1990. At the UNCHR, the EU urged the SLORC to release immediately and unconditionally all detained political leaders and political prisoners and reiterated their call for dialogue with all Burma's political and ethnic groups and the establishment of multi-party democracy.
Ireland, during its forthcoming EU Presidency, will seek to advance the process of democratisation and respect for human rights in Burma, and, to this end, will consider the development of a progressive critical dialogue with that country.
