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Excerpts from UK Foreign Secretary



Reply-To: "TIN KYI" <tinkyi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Excerpts from UK Foreign Secretary Robin Cook's Speech

Excerpts from UK Foreign Secretary Robin Cook's Speech
Posted on 9/29/99, 09:08 AM CST. Email this story to a friend.
Source: JM.
Posted by: ShweInc NEWs

Isolation in the modern world carries a big penalty in the global economy.
We do not wish to visit isolation on any country that is willing to engage
with us.

But there are some regimes so remote from our values that they must be made
to pay the price of isolation.

One of these is Burma, ruled by a regime that has put hundreds of elected
MPs in prison and hundreds of thousands of its people into refugee camps.

As I speak, there is a service of commemoration for Michael Aris, the
husband of Aung San Suu Kyi. When Michael knew he was dying of cancer, we
asked the Government of Burma to give him a visa so that he could say
goodbye to his wife. They refused.

They could not make even a simple act of human compassion to a dying man.

It is because of their behaviour that this Government has stopped all
support for trade with Burma and discouraged any tourism to Burma.

Some people say that human rights in other countries is none of our
business. We can have democracy and civil liberty for ourselves, but can
turn a blind eye to how other governments behave and a deaf ear to the cries
for help of their people.

I find it offensive that the same people should insist on democracy and
freedom for Europeans, but insist that we should do nothing to defend the
same rights of the peoples of Asia, or Africa.

Every delegate can be proud that last week's report from Amnesty concludes
that your government "has made a genuine and active commitment to human
rights".