Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-11-17-Speech-4-205"
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"en.20051117.23.4-205"2
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".
Mr President, shortly after the Second World War, Burma made a reasonable start as an independent state. The key problem was that the people from central Burma differed, in terms of languages and culture, from the people nearer the coast and that the indigenous peoples wanted maximum autonomy. This demand was not met; they were not even met halfway, and violent conflicts were the result, giving the army the opportunity to become even more powerful and independent, eventually seizing all the powers of the state and also a large proportion of the economy.
It is a strange kind of dictatorship that does not have any ideological goals that might make them more popular among certain sections of the population. Within this dictatorship, there is a continuing battle, whereby leaders are deposed and even imprisoned. Within the leading group, there are also conflicting economic interests in the extraction of minerals, in the felling of tropical rain forest and in the production of opium. The tactics used in respect of the democratic opposition are also variable.
The only time when free elections were allowed, the large majority had spoken out in favour of the opposition, and so the result was subsequently cancelled. A change in regime has appeared virtually impossible to date. For years, foreign companies sought financial gain from this dictatorship. Burma can provide cheap raw materials, because the people are kept more or less in slavery and nature and the environment are not protected. Under pressure from various international protest movements, those economic contacts have now been cut back considerably, but have not completely disappeared. Only continued and strengthened isolation can bring change in due course.
It is to be welcomed that the proposed resolution calls for a ban on any companies registered in the European Union investing in, or lending to, Burma. Only in that way can we help put a stop to the rape and pillaging by government troops, forced labour, forced house moves, the taking of political prisoners and the exclusion of citizens from the government in office."@en1
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