NEWS - Australia-Burma: after Timor

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Subject: NEWS - Australia-Burma: after Timor, Time to 'Talk Tough' on Rangoon

Australia-Burma: after Timor, Time to 'Talk Tough' on Rangoon

CANBERRA, (Sep. 29) IPS - The Australian government, after reversing its
long-standing policy on East Timor, is under increasing pressure from
human rights groups and opposition political parties to drop its policy
of engagement with the Burmese military regime. 

"The Australian government eventually stood up to Indonesia over East
Timor so it shouldn't go soft on the Burmese military regime," said
Australian Greens senator and human rights activist Bob Brown. 

Critics like him argue that if Australia can correct its decades-old
policy of closing its eyes to Indonesia's abuses in East Timor, it can
also change what they consider its flawed approach toward the Rangoon
junta. 

In early August, Australian Human Rights Commissioner Chris Sidoti spent
three days in Rangoon discussing with Burmese junta officials proposals
for improving human rights standards, including the possibility of
training Burmese military and police officers and the establishment of a
human rights commission. 

"If there is any possibility of working with the Government of Burma to
improve human rights there I think we have to explore that possibility.
It is as simple as that, that's the bottom line," Sidoti said. 

Sidoti bluntly rejects criticism of Canberra's policy of engagement with
the Burmese military regime, which has been made by Burmese opposition
leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, also leader of the National
League for Democracy (NLD). 

"I know that Daw Aung Sun Suu Kyi and the NLD and others who support the
development of democracy in Burma might not like this, but the NLD is
not in power in Burma. It is not in a position to do anything to improve
the human rights of the people of Burma," Sidoti said. 

Sidoti's remarks have come in for strong criticism. "I disagree with
Chris Sidoti. That's what was said about East Timor," Senator Brown
said. 

"The world has now learnt that Australia's recognition of Indonesia's
occupation of East Timor and, until very recently, its refusal to
champion the cause of the East Timorese independence movement came at an
appalling human cost," he argued. "We shouldn't make the same mistake
with Burma." 

While the European Union and the US continue to advocate trade sanctions
against Burma, the Australian government is encouraging the Burmese to
counter concerns about the involvement of the military regime in the
drug trade and human rights abuses. 

Underlying Australia's policy shift to promoting engagement with the
regime is the view by Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer that
"simply shouting from the sidelines has apparently achieved nothing". 

While the NLD won 82 percent of the seats in the Burmese Parliament at
the 1990 election, a result the military refused to recognize, Downer
thinks it is time to move on and explore new strategies. 

Fearing the NLD might be marginalised by Australia's engagement policy,
a videotaped plea from Suu Kyi to Australians was smuggled out of the
country and shown to Australian parliamentarians last week. 

"Sometimes we are a little concerned that the policies of the Australian
government may not be such that would hasten the process of
democratization in Burma," Suu Kyi said in the video. 

While the government of Australia and Sidoti "mean well", she said, "we
think that the timing of this visit is wrong and that it was ill
advised". 

"At this time the military authorities are at their most oppressive and
this could be seen as an endorsement of their policies, it could in fact
be seen as a tacit approval of what they are doing to the democratic
forces in Burma," she warned. 

But Sidoti rejects Suu Kyi's criticism that his proposals are simply
putting the fox in charge of the henhouse. 

"Well I guess the fox is in charge of the chickens, whether she and we
like it or not. The hope is rather to constrain the fox in the
activities that it undertakes, to convince it that the chickens need to
be dealt with in a much better way than has been the case in the past,'
he explained. 

Alison Tate, project officer for South-east Asia for Union Aid Abroad
(APHEDA), disagrees with Sidoti's willingness to engage Burma. 

"The NLD are not just an opposition groups but they are the people who
have the electoral mandate from the 1990 election and deserve the
respect of advocates of human rights. The comments from Sidoti don't
really strengthen the effort for democracy," she said. 

Australia's shadow minister for foreign affairs, Laurie Brereton, backs
Suu Kyi's calls for sanctions against the military regime. Opening a
dialogue with the military regime, he warned, would result in the
Burmese government "using that dialogue for their own propaganda
purposes". 

In February, the Australian government defied an international boycott
by sending police and diplomatic staff to attend a conference on
narcotics that was sponsored by the Burmese military regime and
Interpol. 

Professor Des Ball from the Australian National University Strategic and
Defence Studies Center rejects the suggestion by the Australian
Government that the Burmese regime is not involved in the drug trade. 

Ball, who recently released a study on Burma and the drug trade, said "a
major dimension of the corruption in Burma is the involvement of the
regime in drug trafficking". 

Ball accuses the Australian government of turning a blind eye to the
involvement of the regime in the drug trade. 

"They don't want to disrupt the diplomatic relations with the regime, so
they can't say the regime is made up of a whole lot of drug runners and
criminals, which is basically what they are. They can't deny the
regime's involvement in drugs but they are trying to give it a clean
sheet," he said.