Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-12-14-Speech-4-270"
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"en.20061214.50.4-270"2
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".
Mr President, 10 December 2006 was International Human Rights Day. In many countries, this was not a holiday but a day for mourning. This is the case in Burma, for instance, where brutal attacks, killings and slave labour are the order of the day. Hundreds of thousands of people have been driven away or have fled in the face of rioting. For the first time in 18 years, there were changes in the government with a change of personnel in the armed forces. However, the Junta chief, General Than Shwe, remained, along with his deputy, Maung Aye. The EU established that gross human rights violations are still taking place. Just recently, Burmese people were forced to construct police stations and buildings for the military against their will. Workers had to walk like human tracker dogs through minefields. This perfidious slave labour should not be tolerated. The International Red Cross also experienced a worsening of the situation. It was prohibited from carrying out further work. It had to withdraw from its regional offices, leaving the population without medical supplies.
Essentially, aid for the Burmese people must come from outside, but this aid must reach the people directly, without falling into the hands of the powers that be. In Burma, around 30% of the children are malnourished whilst at the same time, the country is the second largest opium producer. Many thousands are political prisoners and the Sakharov prize winner, Mrs Aung San Suu Kyi, has been under house arrest for the last 16 years. Large ethnic groups have been oppressed and any opposition nipped in the bud.
We call on China and other countries to finally discontinue aid for the military Junta and to participate in international measures designed to bring about positive changes in Burma. Action taken by the ASEAN countries against those in power is an important and necessary step. Burma needs a road map to democracy in order to institutionalise human rights and to adopt a convention which introduces steps for the introduction of democracy. Commissioner, the EU must become much more active and perhaps even impose sanctions to bring the violence to an end."@en1
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