The Sub-Committee on Human Rights met on Thursday, 19 June 2003. Deputy Carey and I were present at that meeting and we heard a presentation on Burma. There has been a sudden announcement of a change of position by the Department of Foreign Affairs regarding Burma, which is incredibly disastrous in respect of the recognition of the military regime in that country. The elected President of the country is under house arrest. Given that we had a detailed submission on breaches and abuses of human rights at the sub-committee, I feel that if we are to be a serious foreign affairs committee, we must hear from the Government on this. First, we must have an opportunity to debate what has happened. We have been presented with no case. I worry about this in terms of the reputation of Ireland in Europe and elsewhere.
The common position on Burma, as I understood it, was not finalised at the level of the EU. The idea that a country that holds the Presidency of the European Union would recognise the military regime in Burma just out of the blue and appoint a non-resident ambassador is highly questionable. I can think of no more urgent matter than this.
We had two different groups before the committee, including the Burma Action Group, and they made representations to us. It was at the request of the husband of Aung San Suu Kyi, while he was alive, that I raised for the first time the restrictions on her freedom. We had consistently, on an all-party basis, held the line on the military regime. I find the current position totally unsatisfactory. There are many nuances to this and I do not know how the Government proposes to deal with them. For example, the last time we discussed the issue, there was a decision on our using our influence through the Security Council to elicit the views of China, which was supplying military equipment to the military regime.
Recognising the military regime is completely selling out on those who are in exile and those we met at the Sub-Committee on Human Rights. We should take a position on this.