Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-12-14-Speech-4-277"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20061214.50.4-277"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, like the other European institutions and like your Parliament, the Commission is very concerned at the situation in Burma. It is exactly 15 years since the European Parliament awarded Mrs Aung San Suu Kyi the Sakharov Prize. We deplore the fact that the political process in that country has been completely paralysed since then. It is true that, like other developing countries, the Burmese authorities are faced with considerable challenges – guaranteeing national unity, political stability, speeding up the country’s economic and social development – but that does not prevent the establishment of a legitimate civilian government.
The present government has said many times that the military authority would be replaced by a legitimate, elected regime based on the road map for Burma, but we are still at the stage of promises. It is for all of us, observers and international backers, inconceivable that a transition to a legitimate and democratically elected regime should take place without dialogue. Such a dialogue must bring together government and political players. It must include Burma’s many ethnic minorities and bring an end to the fighting in the areas where those minorities live.
In the same way, political transition is inconceivable so long as the present regime’s political opponents are in prison or deprived of their liberty, as is still the case of Mrs Aung San Suu Kyi and more than 1 000 of the regime’s opponents. The vision of a democratic and prosperous Burma also assumes respect for human rights. Such respect is cruelly lacking. Despite the existence of a civil society, the exercise of basic rights is far from guaranteed: intimidation, arbitrary arrest, imprisonment of civilians for exercising their civic rights, and restrictions of individual liberties are continuing. Members of political parties are under constant surveillance by the security services. Part of the population is being exploited by the army, which is using them as forced labour. It goes without saying that the restrictions imposed on the International Committee of the Red Cross, as you rightly said, are intolerable: there are few signs that the government is undertaking to remedy the matter.
What is the European Union’s position on all this, ladies and gentlemen? The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Charter of the International Labour Organisation are our benchmarks. The European common position imposes restrictions on visas and investment. On the trade front, Burma no longer enjoys the preferential trade arrangements conferred by the system of generalised preferences. For all that, the very nature of the Burmese regime makes the Burmese population highly vulnerable to poverty and disease. For that reason, the Commission has decided to increase its assistance appreciably from 2007, especially in the fields of health and education. The Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, under the aegis of the United Nations and cofinanced by the Commission, should enable those three diseases to be combated more effectively.
In that country’s particular context, any programme calls for vigilance and commitment. The programmes financed by the Community, to the tune of around EUR 24 million, are being implemented by UN agencies and international NGOs. The Commission has also set up a decentralised cooperation programme to support civil society. Moreover, the Commission is by far the largest donor to Burmese refugees in Thailand.
In critical dialogue with the government, the Commission will not cease reminding the Burmese authorities of their responsibilities. The transition in Burma must respect human rights. The admirable struggle of Mrs Aung San Suu Kyi, the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize laureate, reminds us of that every day.
Mr President, may I say on my personal behalf that I have particularly appreciated these debates on human rights, especially the debate on Burma. I would really like to assure Parliament that the Commission will be showing the utmost vigilance and the utmost determination in doing all it possibly can to bring to an end the situation currently prevailing in that country."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples