Sir, - The Irish Times (May 18th) carried a review of the programme Network First; Inside Burma Land of Fear shown on UTV on Tuesday, May 14th, highlighting a situation in Burma (official name Myanmar) that, as John Pilger says, " . . . its new found foreign investors and tourists do not, or do not wish to see". The final comment in the review poses the question: "Excellent documentary... but what to do?"
The programme recounted the horrific events in Burma in 1988 as well as the rampant abuses of human rights that continue to be perpetrated by the military regime in power, the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). Despite extensive documentation of these abuses, both by non governmental organisations working with those who flee Burma and reports by the UN special rapporteur on Burma, investors choose at best to ignore and at worst make shallow denials of the occurrence of these abuses. In the United States, there has been a major lobby for disinvestment campaigns from Burma. Levi Strauss, Liz Claiborne and, most recently, PepsiCo have withdrawn from Burma because of human rights' concerns.
While there is still considerable US investment in Burma, it is regrettable that some of our fellow EU member states are the countries with the heaviest investment in Burma - the UK and France being the two highest investors, respectively. This is at a time the European Commission is investigating the use of forced labour in Burma, with a view to withdrawing the preferential import benefits which the country currently enjoys. The EU investment also comes at a time when Aung San Suu Kyi (who received 82 per cent of the vote in national elections in 1990 but has since then been denied power by the SLORC), states that: "As long as new money comes in, the SLORC is under less and less incentive to change."
Trocaire believes that there is a role Ireland could play at EU level in formulating a proactive and strong policy to address human rights' abuses in Burma, particularly as Ireland takes on the presidency of the EU and also as the Irish Government has highlighted human rights as a priority issue in its recent White Paper on Foreign Policy. The current EU position of "critical dialogue" with the SLORC (a euphemism for investment promotion) will not bring about any improvement to the situation in the country. International pressure in the form of sanctions, as Desmond Tutu is quoted as saying "is the only language the tyrants understand".
Yours, etc.,
Head of Overseas Department,
Trocaire,
Booterstown Avenue,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.