EU wants Asean to turn screw on Myanmar

EU leaders will ask their counterparts from south-east Asia to maintain political pressure on Myanmar (or Burma) when they meet in Singapore next Thursday (22 November), according to EU diplomats.

The Singapore summit is the first meeting between heads of states and governments from the EU and the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) since the Burmese military regime clamped down on peaceful protests in late September.

The crackdown prompted Asean, which comprises ten countries in the region including Myanmar, to express its "revulsion" in unprece-dentedly blunt terms.

The EU tightened its sanctions on Myanmar at a meeting of foreign ministers in mid-October and called on Myanmar’s neighbours to "maintain pressure" for reform in the country.

On 6 November, the EU’s foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, appointed Italian Piero Fassino as special envoy to Myanmar.

A spokeswoman for Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the European external affairs commissioner, said that the EU had been in constant bilateral talks with Myanmar’s neighbours on the matter.

A draft joint declaration to be passed at the summit calls on the Myanmar government to "step up" its engagement with the UN and to create the conditions for a genuine dialogue with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for years. The declaration also supports the work of UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari.

Human rights groups have pointed to Singapore, the venue of the summit, as a key financial conduit for the Burmese regime, calling for an asset freeze similar to that imposed by the EU and the US.

Most of the draft declaration refers to climate change and a call for closer co-operation between the two blocs, on measures to promote energy efficiency, the use of alternative energy, forestation and reforestation.

The EU will also discuss Myanmar at forthcoming summits with China in Beijing (28 November) and India in New Delhi (30 November).

EU leaders will ask their counterparts from south-east Asia to maintain political pressure on Myanmar (or Burma) when they meet in Singapore next Thursday (22 November), according to EU diplomats.