Human rights lecture would fall on deaf ears

The ASEM summit is geared to giving EU and Asian leaders a chance to discuss common interests and set up business and cultural links but there is one area where controversy is almost guaranteed.

The issue of human rights, and in particular the situation in military-controlled Myanmar, is an area of strong disagreement. Indeed over the years Myanmar has become such a sticking-point that it has jeopardised the ASEM forum itself, with EU leaders refusing to attend meetings if Myanmar government representatives were invited.

But things have changed since the EU’s ‘Common Position on Burma/Myanmar’, which imposed a visa-ban on government officials travelling to Europe, was altered to allow officials to attend meetings in the EU when human rights were to be discussed.

Among the leaders expected to attend the summit is Myanmar’s Foreign Minister, Nyan Win.

Finland, currently president of the EU, believes the meeting will be "a good forum for having a high-level discussion on the issue and making the EU’s position loud and clear", according to one diplomat.

Others are not so sure the tactic will work and say that it will lend legitimacy to a brutal regime.

"It’s a big coup for the regime and represents a climb-down for the EU," says Mark Farmaner, campaigns manager with the Burma Campaign UK. He adds that EU policy on Myanmar lacks coherence because member states cannot agree on what stance to take. Some EU states (France, Germany, Austria and Italy) are concerned about business interests and advocate a softer line while others (the Netherlands, the UK, Ireland, Denmark and the Czech Republic) are in favour of tough measures, says Farmaner.

Even if the EU does take a hard line on Myanmar at the summit, it is likely to run into opposition from other Asian countries which often stress that ASEM is not a forum for discussing members’ internal policies.

"If you want to make a change then maybe inviting the foreign minister is a good idea… but it’s a military dictatorship running the country so how do you convince them to do something about democracy?" says Axel Berkofsky, associate analyst with the European Policy Centre.

Other human rights issues are also likely to come up, such as China’s record, but are not expected to dominate the agenda. Asian countries do not like being preached to about their perceived shortcomings and are at pains to stress the "Asian version of human rights and democracy and that Asian values are different", says Berkofsky. And if that does not convince the Europeans to back down, the colonial card can always be played. "Asians are good at going back to the past. They say the Europeans invaded us, they occupied us and that they shouldn’t be preaching now," says Berkofsky.

Despite the EU’s lack of coherence on some human rights aspects of its Asia policy, Berkofsky believes it can be a force for change. "When Indonesia turned into a democracy the EU played its part in supporting it and made a difference," he says.

The promotion of good governance through the EU’s development policy is also seen as a way of promoting democracy in many parts of Asia.

The ten south-east Asia countries which make up ASEAN (that along with China, Japan and South Korea represent the Asian nations at ASEM) are also looking to the EU as an example of how better to co-ordinate their economic and political activities, says Mark Leonard, director of foreign policy at the Centre for European Reform in London. "In the whole process of regional integration ASEAN is looking to the EU as a model and it is important that the EU shares its model of integration."

The ASEM summit is geared to giving EU and Asian leaders a chance to discuss common interests and set up business and cultural links but there is one area where controversy is almost guaranteed.

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