Madam, - We in Burma Action Ireland were very pleased to read Joe Humphreys's thought-provoking article "Time to take a proper stand on Burma" (World View, June 28th). The big question is, of course, what is the "proper stand" and who is going to take it?
For years now the United Nations and European Union have been sending their representatives, "special envoys" and delegations for talks with Burma's ruling junta. None of these have produced any positive outcome. These messengers have been fobbed off with vague promises of progress towards a return of democratic rule, which the self-serving generals quite clearly never had any intention of carrying through.
Even the much-vaunted constitution, with its inbuilt proviso that 25 per cent of parliamentary seats will be reserved for junta appointments, and the exclusion of democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi from holding any political office, give the lie to any pretence of freedom and justice for the traumatised people of Burma.
Burma's powerful neighbour and chief trading partner, China, is the main arms supplier to the regime and is very much its political protector. Chinese companies have huge investments in Burma and operate more than 800 projects there. So it is easy to see that China's support is the mainstay of Burma's generals who have built up huge personal wealth from the connection. One can see why "the West", eager to do big business with Beijing, treads warily in its relationships with both Burma and China. What a sad indictment it is of our morally bankrupt world that profit takes precedence over people.
The problem of Burma may seem utterly intractable, but let us not forget other seemingly impossible situations in recent years which had happy endings. I think of apartheid in South Africa, the Berlin wall, and our own troubles in the North. We must keep the flag flying for those brave monks and their supporters who suffered and died for peacefully protesting last autumn. We must continue to keep faith with Aung San Suu Kyi, freeman of Dublin and Galway and Nobel Peace Laureate, languishing under house arrest in Rangoon.
Again we call on the Government to persist in its endeavours to highlight Burma in every international forum, bearing in mind that Ireland's heroic struggle for freedom was a major inspiration to Aung San, father of Aung San Suu Kyi, and all those who won their freedom from British imperialism in other times.
August 8th will be the 20th anniversary of the massacre of hundreds, if not thousands, of student demonstrators on the streets of Burma. By a strange coincidence it will also be the opening day of the Olympic Games in China. - Yours, etc,
GEARÓID KILGALLEN, Chairman, Burma Action Ireland, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.