EU, Stockholm, IHT, BONINO

[cd@xxxxxxxxxx]

Aug 27 1996, Paris 

FIGHTING CHILD PROSTITUTION
Burma again in the IHT (International Herald Tribune, Aug 27 1996, N Y 
Times).

You may remember last year at the Beijing Conference on Women, in the video 
sent by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the story of the six-year old child raped, and 
too weakened and wounded, died alongside the road. In the video, a voice 
says, " Rape is not just an attack on the women, but on the social and social 
structure of entire communities... The rape of women serving in forced labor 
camps, or as porters, is said to be common."

" Images Asia's human rights workers documenting cases of Slorc
abuses against women and children said soldiers particularly
target women whose husbands are fighting with the rebel armies.
A member of Images Asia said they have heard the same name again
and again while they interviewed women. That name is Sgt Ba Kyi
and among his victims was a six-year-old girl. The girl's parents
sent her to gather vegetables at a farm and Ba Kyi is said to
have raped her by the roadside. She was unable to walk after the
attack and villagers later found her. She died later in hospital. "

Now the Stockholm conference on  sexual exploitation  of children must not 
overlook the political causes of rape, Genocide, and the slavery of an entire 
nation in Burma. And yet, sadly, this is exactly what is happening.

The IHT today Tuesday, Aug 27 1996, ran a NY Times editorial (the IHT is 50% 
owned by the NY Times), which Euro-Burmanet graciously reprints for your 
interest. Of pimps and whores and other lowly phenomena (thats a pun, not a 
value judgement), there is nothing light-hearted or defensible about child 
prostitution and its masters. Poverty kills its victims, slowly, with 
torture, tearing the body and killing the soul, protected by the complicity 
of those who do nothing to stop it. 

France, where TOTAL, the international energy giant bases its headquarters, a 
country of refined elegance, discreet charm and arrogant hypocrisy, has one 
of the highest incest rates in Europe, where incest remains a strictly 
confidential, or family taboo, where many of those nice little toddlers going 
to grade school get sexually abused out of class, and some in class as 
reported recently in Liberation, Euro-Burmanet says its time Europe clean its 
act up (re this months hot-news child sex ring in Belgium ! ! yes, home of 
the European Parliamentary diplomats, where now ten people, including public 
security law officers.  New arrests are announced daily in the press. So far 
two kids, eight and ten years old, have been found dead, after they had gone 
missing for over a year during which time they were trapped in an undergound 
cellar, systematically tortured and sexually abused. Many children are still 
missing.

In reading of the reports of rape, vioation of women and children, torture 
and murder by the Slorc junta in Rangoon, and its misfit soldier boys, isn't 
time that Europe takes to heart, the deep cold fact, of what it means for 
kids to be destroyed, and to look now closely, not only at the sex crimes and 
their offenders, but to act forcefully to protect the victims against further 
aggression by the criminals and their masters in the Burmese Slorc junta 
alleged government. Stop Slorc now. Slorc has no regard for humanity. It 
rapes, it kills, it traffics in small children. Its abuses are well known to 
the United Nations and Human Rights groups. 

Euro-Burmanet sends a message to the Stockholm conference on the sex trade, 
to denounce the alleged government under the control of Slorc, and to call 
for a genuine dialogue and reconcilation with the democratic forces of Burma. 
Anything less on the part of the Stockholm conference members, to take 
politics out of the problem, will only go one step more to further endorese 
the status quo, accept the political shackles of repression and slaverly, so 
as to see the problem only further dehumanized  by technocrats who do nothing 
to stop the causes of  which destroy children. 

Children are the  future of humanity. Destory the children, and you their  
future, as well as your own. Continuing to accept Slorc in power, endorses 
violent and sexual  repression, and encourages it. 

Let us remind readers that TOTAL SA, and their employees in Burma, according 
to eye-witness allegations, have conduct this sex trade in their development 
along their precious gas pipeline.

Euro-Burmanet regrets the IHT editorial emphasis claiming poverty as the 
overriding cause of child prostitution, as it puts all the factors in one 
poverty basket, overlooks and obvious political causes of this tragic 
repression, and exonerates those individuals with power and responsibility. 

Note that TOTAL has neither denied nor confirmed these 
allegations.Euro-Burmanet has recently reposted these allegations on the 
Internet. We encourage all readers to repost them widely, with the call  to 
JOIN THE WORLDWIDE TOTAL BOYCOTT.

And if the people like Sgt Ba Kyi alleged to have raped and killed a 
six-year-old daughter commit their crimes with impunity, one day they should 
be made to pay for their horrible crimes. 

Thank you
Dawn Star
cd@xxxxxxx
http://www-uvi.eunet.fr/asia/euro-burma
http://www-uvi.eunet.fr/asia/euro-burma/total

cc.  International Hearld Tribune, Letter to the Editors <iht@xxxxxxx>

ps IHT, one final word please.Although I like the painter Balthus, your 
choice of running the Balthus interview in the same issue's backpage in which 
he talks extensively of his "pornographic " art was both untimely, and 
inappropriate, showing at best a total insensivity to the problem of 
exploiting children. As Balthus who himself  confesses that he did so to 
bring attraction to a hitherto obscure and unknown  painter, he too was 
explicitly exploiting children - and a universal imaginary perception of  
alluring half-naked young girls - to sell his art. I find it hard to believe 
that this was anything more coincidental and obscurist than intentionally 
provocative on the part of the Tribune's editorial staff. -Dawn Star, 
Euro-Burmanet

Dear readers, send your message to Stockholm now ! 
SLORC MUST GO. END EUROPEAN INVESTMENT NOW IN BURMA. 
SUPPORT THE INTERNATIONAL CALL TO JOIN THE WORLDWIDE TOTAL BOYCOTT.

Fighting Child Prostitution

In Manila there are 10 year olds who have sex with motorcycle-taxi drivers in 
return for two hours' worth of fares, about $6. In Bombay thousands of girls 
are held in brothels as prisoners, many in cages. By conservative estimates, 
a million children worldwide are forced, by parents, pimps or poverty, to 
sell sex. After neglecting this problem for too long, nations are beginning 
to treat it seriously.

On Tuesday in Stockholm, the world's first international conference on the 
sexual exploitation of children, will open, with more than 100 countries 
represented. The conference seeks to raise awareness and explore strategies 
to fight the prostitution of children of children, child trafficking and 
pornography. 

Especially in India and Thailand , many prostituted girls are essentially 
slaves. They are kidnapping or bought from their families in rural villages 
or in neighboring Nepal or Burma and taken to Bombay or Bangkok. There they 
are forced to work for years until their debt is repaid or they die of AIDS. 
Organized gangs and corrupt police and government officials enforce the 
system. 

Most child prostitutes, however, are driven into the sex business by poverty. 
Girls and boys sell their bodies to help their families and to stay alive. 
Sometimes the pimps are their parents or older brothers. Their numbers soar 
in places with relatively wealthy foreign soldiers or tourists. But the vast 
majority of the men who buy sex from children are their countrymen.

Child prostitution is growing. Paradoxically, AIDS is one reason. Clients 
increasingly search for younger, supposedly healthier children. But since 
small children's flesh tears more easily, they are actually morer susceptible 
to infection.

World attention to child prostitution hfas grown since 1990, when activists 
from four Asian countries founded ECPAT, for End Child Prostitution in Asia 
Tourism. ECPAT, Unicef and a group of organizations that work with children 
are sponsoring the conference.

Many governments are taking their first steps to combat child prostitution, 
although good laws are often not enforced. At least 10 countries have laws 
allowing prosecution of their citizens for having sex with children abroad.

In 1994, the United States adopted a law proposed by Representative Joseph 
Kennedy that makes it illegal to travel overseas for the purpose of having 
sex with children. Such intent is hard to prove, and no one has so far been 
prosecuted.

Third World countries are cracking down as well. One reason is that AIDS is 
making the cost of the sex industry more vivsible to governments that had 
been blinded by the tourist dollars.

Nongovernmental organizations that work on the issue area also growing. In 
the Philippines, the mayor of Manila shut down the city's notorious redlight 
district in 1992. Pressed by local organizations, President Fidel Ramos 
issued a law that year making it easier to prosecute men who have sex with 
children.

Unfortunately, Manila's child prostitution moved to other neighborhoods with 
a local clientele. The real solution is to prevent child prostitution by 
creating jobs in rural areas, persuading parents to keep daughters in schools 
and educating women about their rights.

The Stockholm conference puts a welcome spotlight on a multibillion dollar 
industry that exploits the world'sq most vulnerable citizens.

- New York Times 
==========================================================
Euro-Burmanet call JOIN THE WORLDWIDE TOTAL BOYCOTT!
==========================================================
August 24,1996

Dear Free Burma activists, supporters and friends in Europe and elsewhere,

The time has come.

It seems to be constant now, -that the movement must accelerate to meet
the challenge of the recent onrush of events which the summer of 1996 has
occasioned.

It is not now the time to lower the guard against the ever-present menace
of fascism in Burma. Worse, its co-conspirators in the great oil
companies TOTAL and Unocal have widened the gap between responsible
government intervention through diplomatic and economic pressure leaving
the door open for renewed attacks on the NLD and relentless rape and
dehumanization of an entire nation of peoples, ethnics and cultures. The
Genocide and annihilation of the Burmese nation must stop.

We unanimously support the announcement  taken by the Free Burma Movement
in the United States on August 19, 1996 when it declared in a letter to
TOTAL Petroleum North America of an all-out TOTAL and Unocal Boycott.

In Chechnya and Bosnie we have seen the failure of European and western
nations to deliver their promise of peace and to end the bloody conflict
that wretches the heart of Europe, and, even more tragically than thought
possible,  Europe now cringes under the weight of its own discontent at
home where social unrest and unemployment pull at an old and tired dying
soul. Europe of the  20th century. Europe ravaged by war, Europe
prosperous. Europe humbled by a lack of vision and humanity. The century
is coming to an end. And so too must end the inertia of frustrated and
warring diplomats afraid to stand up to Asian autocrats and dictators
taunting the world with their corruption, nepotism and illegitimacy as
leaders on the world stage of democracy. The curtain must close on these
harbingers of ill-fate, suffering, poverty and despair.

For TOTAL, and its pipeline partners, the crisis in Burma is a long-term
crisis investment. Slorc aims to rule for the long-term, TOTAL invests
for the long-term. The summer's series of crisis to crisis news-breaking
events is over, but the crisis goes on with no end in sight. Once the
West signaled that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was not to be harmed, or
imprisoned - her public and private life is already under seige and
around the clock surveillance,- it appeared that the West could save face
and go away with its dignity intact. That is not so, for as long as Slorc
remains bold and brazenly in place, the dignity of the West suffers
further loss with the lives of the forgotten Burmese people.

Evil never ceases to change its forms. The Slorc rulers play out their
tea-time diplomacy gaining time to reap more hell and rich profits as the
people endure more harsh suffering and unspeakable brutality at the hands
of a western-supported army of ignorant violent thugs. TOTAL has said
clearly that the huge French energy company will not pull out of Burma
and abandon their Slorc business partners. TOTAL's security directors
coordinate strategy with the Slorc generals for construction and
protection of their " Death pipeline ".

Meanwhile, Slorc continues to defy Warren Christopher's muted warnings
and increases its repression, as TOTAL's own directors and corporate
spokesmen publicly credit the company with improving conditions of life
for the Burmese economy..All the while, Slorc kills and terrorizes an
entire nation.

For Slorc and TOTAL, nothing has changed. It is the same Evil in another
form. As Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has illuminated, augering silence to
denounce these evils  is complicity and encourages more of the same.

There is no more time to lose. This is why we have called to JOIN THE
WORLDWIDE TOTAL BOYCOTT.

The strength and resistance of the Burmese people against the Slorc-led
Genocide brings us to a turning point in the history of  the struggle for
freedom. 

Recent diplomacy has proved sadly ineffective. Slorc and Washington do not 
speak the same language, their bluffs at reform is nothing but winds in the 
sails of stately internationalism gone
dangerously off-course and on the shoals. But what of it ?  Even the US
sanctions movement in Congress showed that neither Mr. Warren Christopher
or his boss in the White House  are going to stop the killing and torture
or end the dying. 

The arrest and tragic death in Insein Prison during the June crackdown of the 
European Honorary Consul Mr. James Leander Nichols is a timely omen that 
Slorc has too far transgressed the principles of
international law. " Leo " Nichols was a symbol of all that was right in
the democratic struggle in Burma, and the ears and eyes of Europe there.
The European diplomats were caught off-guard. European human rights
lobbies failed to sway them. United Nations condemnations were ignored.
When at last Mr. Nichols closed his eyes at his tortures and took his
last breath, he died. Did he die in vain ? Will Europe and the free men
and women of the world, close their eyes on forgottten Burma ?

Dr. Sein, Prime Minister of the exile Burmese government  and cousin to
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi ( their fathers were brothers and founders of  
independence 
of Burma from the British) is right when  last week, in Australia,
he again called upon the world to assert international pressure on Slorc's
alleged government and end their repression. Dr. Sein urged that
international investors heed the call of Suu Kyi and stop supporting
Slorc with their investments in Burma. Foreign investors are increasing
suppression and Genocide in Burma.

For the past year Euro-Burma's repeated  recommendations that the company
TOTAL SA reverse its strategy of financial support and partnership with
the alleged government of  " Myanmar " have  gone virtually ignored. 

In fact, TOTAL is strengthening its security measures to protect the
pipeline, fosters the use of forced labor in its pipeline area under its
supervision, and trades in sex with young Burmese girls.

 Essentially, TOTAL is destroying the integrity of the Burmese culture and 
its
traditions - and making money on the Burmese energy ressources it
exploits. It is the rape of Burma. TOTAL, and its directors in  the great
French oil and gas bully,  are raping Burma.

Last June,at TOTAL's annual shareholders' meeting in Paris, Euro-Burmanet 
denounced TOTAL's indifference and delivered a copy of the SAIN report "Total 
Denial" to Thierry Desmarest, PDG of TOTAL SA. He could not have cared less 
about any human rights victim.

Our letters and interviews with Mr. Thierry Desmarest, PDG of TOTAL SA
have been met with calculated insensibility and blatant disregard for
human rights abuses for which they bear a great direct responsibility.
TOTAL SA is a partner to genocide. There is already extensive
documentation and eye-witness testimony bearing out the role of TOTAL SA
as they pursue undeterred in their plans to exploit the energy ressources
of the country to their own benefit and the profit of the Slorc killing 
machine.

Like in Bosnia, European ministers overlooked the massacres and rape of
suppression in  Burma, of ordinary villagers helpless to defend themselves
against  ignoble soldiers of a 400,000 man army trained and equipped by 
China.

Therefore, Euro-Burmanet,based in Paris, with determination and
committment of its supporters, while it regrets the conditions that make
its decision irreversible, joins in solidarity with the Free Burma
Movement in the United States - and the millions of people in the free
world to STOP INVESTMENT IN BURMA.

We call upon all active Free Burma groups in Europe to join together now
to coordinate united action JOIN THE WORLDWIDE TOTAL BOYCOTT

Further, Euro-Burmanet joins in the international call to -

        -Stop all non-humanitarian investment and financial support of the 
Slorc regime in Burma
        -Boycott all tourism to Burma
        -Withdraw European Union's Generalised System of Preference (GSP) 
status to Burma
        -Release of all political prisoners in Burma
        -Endorse the political program of the National League for Democracy

Please send youR letters now denouncing TOTAL's pipeline venture  and SLORC 
GENOCIDE in Burma to :

MR RAJSOOMER LALLAH
SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN MYANMAR
C/O- U.N. CENTRE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
PALAIS DES NATIONS
1211 GENEVA 10
SWITZERLAND


JOIN THE TOTAL BOYCOTT NOW! DOES TOTAL'S ENERGY BUSINESS CREATE NEW
REFUGEES ?
FREE BURMA NOW !

Send your letters now :

TOTAL  SA
Thierry Desmarest, CEO, President of Exploration and Production,
HQ: 24 Cours Michelet 92800 Puteaux France
Tel: 33-1-41-35-40-00  Fax: 33-1-41-35-64-65

E-mail :
Paris France,  : <hourcard@xxxxxxxxx
New York City  <TOTALNYC@xxxxxxx , <roberth@xxxxxxxxx

http://www-uvi.eunet.fr/asia/euro-burma
http://www-uvi.eunet.fr/asia/euro-burma/total

TOTAL BOYCOTT TOTAL BOYCOTT TOTAL BOYCOTT TOTAL BOYCOTT TOTAL BOYCOTT

We reprint the August 19 letter to TOTAL NORTH AMERICA. EMAIL IT TO :

TOTAL US
TOTALNYC@xxxxxxx
roberth@xxxxxxxxx

Gary Jones, CEO
TOTAL Petroleum North America
TOTAL Tower, 900-19th Street
Denver, Colorado
[Hand Delivered]

Dear Mr. Jones:

We are here to express our concern about the irrefutable links between
TOTAL and Burma's illegal military junta, the State Law and Order
Restoration Council (SLORC).

Through numerous exchanges with TOTAL International, we have
conscientiously informed your company of the dangers -- both to the
people of Burma and to TOTAL employees -- inherent in a joint venture
partnership with the SLORC.

Since 1993 we have urged Unocal and TOTAL to reconsider this project
until  there could be real guarantees that the SLORC wouldn't behave in
the region of your proposed natural gas pipeline as it does throughout
the country.

Human rights violations along the route of the TOTAL/Unocal/SLORC
pipeline have been clearly documented and continue to be reported by
refugees fleeing the area.

As you may know, Unocal is the target to a growing boycott throughout the
western United States.  We regret to inform you that we now find no other
alternative but to launch a North American campaign to boycott TOTAL and
its service stations.

At the same time, Free Burma groups in seven European countries are
launching a TOTAL boycott after convincing Heineken and Carlsberg to
cancel plans for breweries in Burma.

Please take some time to review the attached report, "TOTAL Denial",
published by the Southeast Asian Information Network and EarthRights
International.

We are certain you'll agree it's time for TOTAL to suspend this project
until the National League for Democracy is given a chance to exhibit the
will of Burma's 43 million citizens -- who gave the NLD a
mandate for Democracy in Burma's 1990 elections.

Sincerely,

Inge Sargent                                    Kyaw Win, Ph.D.
Kim Mizrahi                                     David Wolfberg

Finally, I would like to call on you and organisations all to contribute
in any way possible to JOIN THE WORLDWIDE TOTAL BOYCOTT. No one must have
illusions here. TOTAL is a formidable adversary not to be underestimated.

It will take a lot of coordinated and organised lobbying here in Europe
and in the United States if we are to accomplish our common objectives.
Let us all work together now.

Please send your suggestions of ways and means for a better campaign. We
will do our best to respond quickly.

And please be sure to send a copy of your letters e-mail to
Euro-Burmanet. If you would like it posted, we will put it on the Web
site annoncing your participation and support.

Thank you,
Dawn Star
cd@xxxxxxx
EuroBurmanet

> http://www-uvi.eunet.fr/asia/euro-burma/
> http://www-uvi.eunet.fr/asia/euro-burma/total/


Ps  Let's make it a presidential election issue, part of the campaign
activity. Target TOTAL's distribution network in the United States.
Hit'em where it hurts. Burma has become a national issue. Keep it so.

You may wish to Email your Congressional reps, and the White House :
President@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Send a copy of your letter to your State
representatives and Federal legislators in Congress.

Euro-Burmanet endorses the Free Burma Coalition in the Free Burma Movement.
=======================================

Reposted : The Nation/17.11.95
=======================================
     The UN and NGOs are compiling a growing dossier of testimonies,
      video tape and witness accounts detailing Rangoon's dirty war
                against ethnic rebels, Aung Zaw reports.

We surrounded the thief's house ... we couldn't find the thief so
we took his wife and child instead. We shaved his wife's head and
confined her to the stockade. When her husband came, we released
her. After that, we killed her husband," a captured Burmese
soldier told makers of a video called Caught In The Crossfire.

The video, made by Images Asia, was shown at the fourth UN
Conference on Women in Beijing this year.

Although the tape was only 18 minutes long, it provides a
shocking testament to the suffering endured by Burmese women
under the State Law and Order Restoration Council.

In a scene showing women cooking in the jungle, a background
voice narrates their plight. "The military uses rape to punish
civilians, especially women, for perceived sympathies with the
enemy and to demonstrate the soldiers' control-and domination
over civilians. Rape is not just an attack on the women, but on
the social and social structure of entire communities."

Much of the rest of the tape is told in the voices of the women themselves. 

UN human rights investigator Yozo Yokota confirmed
the charges in his recent report to the General Assembly,
stating: "The rape of women serving in forced labor camps, or as
porters, is said to be common."

The report further described the appalling violations of human
rights, including the systematic rape of women by Burmese
soldiers.

Burmese soldiers view rape as a right, the report said. It added
that rape was encouraged by officers. "Women are sometimes
singled out for portering or other types of forced labor in order
to be raped," the report said.

Images Asia's human rights workers documenting cases of Slorc
abuses against women and children said soldiers particularly
target women whose husbands are fighting with the rebel armies.
A member of Images Asia said they have heard the same name again
and again while they interviewed women. That name is Sgt Ba Kyi
and among his victims was a six-year-old girl. The girl's parents
sent her to gather vegetables at a farm and Ba Kyi is said to
have raped her by the roadside. She was unable to walk after the
attack and villagers later found her. She died later in hospital.

Burmese soldiers who have been captured or defected to rebel
armies have admitted rape is common. Many women and children in
Shan, Karen and Mon states told their stories to NGO workers and
human rights workers who have been closely watching the
situation.

One woman said she saw soldiers seize a woman from her village.
"I was so scared of them I ran away. I hid in the jungle for more
than two weeks and subsisted only on rice soup." When she
returned to her village, she was confronted by a Slorc patrol,
forcing her to flee again.

A soldier who defected revealed what they did to villagers. "When
we arrive in a village, we take all the goods except clothes and
money. But we take all the food. If we don't get what we want, we
get something else. If there isn't really anything, we just get
porters and beat them up."

The soldier said they were usually drunk and violent. Upon
arriving at the next village, they did the same thing. "Not one
village is left untouched," he said.

The villagers, who live in of the world's poorest countries, do
not have much, but soldiers robbed them anyway. "They took
everything and raped us," said a woman.

The Karen woman said: "In Nomboh the Slorc was searching for a
KNU soldier. But when they couldn't find him, they beat up his
wife. One soldier went too far. He forced the young daughter to
hold his penis while he kicked her unconscious." The Karen
National Union (KNU) is the remaining rebel group which has not
reached a ceasefire agreement with Slorc.

Torture wasn't confined to prisons, said a human rights worker in
Chiang Mai who has seen many refugees fleeing to the Thai border.

"Many came because of the economic situation in Burma, which is
so bad." The human rights worker, who has been monitoring the
situation since the 80s, added, however: "I saw many women from
Shan and Karen state come here because they did not want to be
raped or harassed by soldiers."

In his recent trip to Rangoon, Professor Yokota was able to meet
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. But he was not able to meet
and talk freely to as many victims as he requested.

However, Yokota said in his well-documented report: "Violations
include undressing women in public ... raping and gang-raping
women individually or in groups."

The Slorc has denied the allegations and asked how can anyone
from Burma commit such outrageous crimes as those mentioned in
the summary of allegations.

A member of Images Asia said delegates at the Beijing conference
were shocked to see one scene. In it three soldiers holding guns
were standing at the bank of a river, questioning a woman who was
in the water. Suddenly, a soldier pulled down his pants and
underwear. While showing his penis, he began thrusting his waist.
It was taken in Moei River from the Thai side of the border.

Even though the junta has repeatedly announced that 15 of the 16
armed insurgent groups have returned to the "legal fold"
thousands of internally displaced persons are still in the
jungle. They face harassment, abuse and possibly death if seen by
soldiers. Some have been taken as porters, while others are
routinely accused of being informers and supporters of rebels.
They are interrogated or killed in front of fellow villagers.

Aung Zaw is a freelance writer. He contributed this to The Nation


=====================================================
Euro-Burmanet also asks that those of you who would like to communicate your 
opposition to the European Union Generalised System of Preference -GSP- 
wherely Slorc stands to benefit by trade advantages accorded to poor 
countries, please send a brief email to Euro-Burmanet. Also please include a 
letter in the post, to Euro-Burmanet, 2 rue Furstenberg, Paris 75006 France. 
We will forward all the letters together to the EU Commissioner's office. 

The letters should be addressed to Emma Bonino, European Union,  Humanitarian 
Commissioner

Thank you,
Dawn Star
Euro-Burmanet, Paris 

<hr>
Headline: Sanctions on Myanmar won't work, says senior EUofficial
Keywords: NLD ban,  National League for Democracy (NLD), Aung San Suu Kyi, 
human rights, political prisoners, torture, murder, execution, rape, Slorc 
abuses, forced labor, forced relocation, EU Humanitarian Commissioner, Emma 
Bonino-EU Humanitarian Commissioner, EU, European Union, the Generalised 
Scheme of
Preference (GSP),
Date: 08 Aug 1996 
Source: BNN,FBC, bnn, moe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (JULIEN MOE), Straits Times 
Section: ebn
Rubrique: euro

     BANGKOK -- The imposition of sanctions by the European Union would be  
ineffective as a means of bringing pressure to bear on Myanmar's military 
government, a senior EU official has said.

     EU Humanitarian Commissioner Emma Bonino, speaking to journalists on 
Tuesday after a three-country swing through Myanmar, Cambodia and Thailand, 
said that any threat of sanctions against Yangon by the European Union would 
be toothless because of Europe's low level of investment in the country.

     "I don't think that for the moment it's a credible way. Our investments 
are very low
     compared to Asian investment ... economically speaking, it's not a major 
impact," she  said.

     She added that there was also dissent on the question of sanctions 
within the EU.

     Calls for sanctions against Myanmar arose in Europe following the June 
22 death in
     detention of Mr Leo Nichols, an honorary consul for several European 
nations,
     including EU-member Denmark.

     Mr Nichols, a close friend of Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu 
Kyi, died
     while serving a prison term for unauthorised use of telephones and fax 
machines.

The Yangon government said he died of natural causes but some European 
officals said he was mistreated before his death.

     European requests for an independent autopsy have been refused by the 
Myanmar government and Norway has accused the authorities of torturing 
Nichols through sleep deprivation.

     Ms Bonino, who heads the EC Humanitarian Office (Echo), said that any
action taken by the European Union should follow the findings of an EU 
commission
investigating forced labour and other social issues in Myanmar.

     The investigation is expected to finish late next month.

     If it finds that forced labour is practised there, EU member countries
will have to decide whether to withdraw trade benefits under the Generalised 
Scheme of
Preference (GSP) which would cost Myanmar US$30 million (S$42 million) a 
year, she said.

     "I do think that there is a great possibility that the European Union 
will unanimously come out with this decision and that could be the start of a 
political world-wide movement," she said, citing efforts by the United States 
to impose economic restrictions on Myanmar.

"World-wide there is concern about what's going on in the country. What is 
not yet decided is what to do," she added.

The US Senate last month decided against imposing strict sanctions against 
Myanmar, but said that the position would be reversed in the event of any 
repression by the Yangon government against the political opposition.

     Ms Bonino said she had met Ms Suu Kyi during her visit to Myanmar but 
her requests to meet officials from the government had been refused.