Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-09-26-Speech-3-255"
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"en.20070926.19.3-255"2
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"Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, when our resolutions and statements do not remain a dead letter or a feeble voice in the great ear of the Council, they are caught up in the flurry of events which certainly do not coincide with or await our plenary schedule.
A few days ago we voted almost unanimously in favour of a resolution on Burma. Its recitals detail the numerous human rights violations being perpetrated in that country today, but they omit to recall that a Marxist-inspired and then military regime has been oppressing its people for decades, with support from China as is well known. Not only is there oppression; it is worth recalling that the Burmese regime is a system that bases a large part of its power and its budget on drug trafficking.
Concerning the repression, censorship and widespread harassment that have characterised the Burmese regime for years, I would point out that there is not only the much-acclaimed Mrs Aung San Suu Kyi, not only journalists such as U Win Tin and actors such as Mr Zaganar or the well-known civil rights activist Win Naing. Let me tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that there are also the Buddhist monks, as you know, but above all else there are many sizeable minorities. These include one cultural and ethnic group in particular that was not mentioned in the resolution approved two weeks ago: the Karen people. This people has for decades refused to fall into line with a system where subsistence depends on child prostitution and the cultivation of drugs.
Merely deploring the repression with which the State Peace and Development Council crushes popular protest, while simultaneously calling for democracy in Burma, is of no more use than the forceful condemnations, the requests for immediate and unconditional release of detainees - which, I emphasise, is crucial - and everything else that we do our utmost to write, beg or threaten without much practical effect.
Even US President Bush, despite his many vacuous remarks before the UN Assembly, has one point in his favour. He has gone so far as to call for UN intervention and spoken of a country which has imposed a reign of fear, where basic freedoms are severely restricted, where ethnic minorities are persecuted, and where forced child labour, human trafficking and rape are commonplace. Mr Bush went on to announce a tightening of sanctions, as has the Presidency-in-Office of the European Union.
Well, let us hope they serve some purpose, because if they do not we will certainly not hear any threats of bombing, neither of Burma’s military bases nor - still less - those of its partner, China. The situation for the Burmese opposition is like that of the decades-old struggle of the Karen people: a lot of noise in Europe and the United States, but let that country sort out its own affairs. For the time being there are no transnational interests at stake there; for the time being the usual empty words are enough for the European Union."@en1
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