BurmaNet News, October 18, 2005

[Editor]

October 18, 2005 Issue # 2825


INSIDE BURMA
AFP: China aids Myanmar's illegal timber trade: report
SHAN: Junta launches new scorched earth campaign

ON THE BORDER
Irrawaddy: Padaung in Northern Thailand to return to Burma

REGIONAL
Prothom Alo via BBC: Rohingas involved in militant activities, home
ministry instructs for close monitoring
Narinjara: Shwe Gas campaigners protest against Daewoo in Dhaka

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: Chad and Bangladesh at rock bottom on world corruption list
Irrawaddy: Junta still stalling on workers’ rights, says union group
AFP: Anti-union repression cost 145 lives in 2004: report

OPINION / OTHER
Vancouver Sun: Obdurate Burmese junta starts to feel some heat
New Straits Times (Malaysia): Myanmar makes Europe a reluctant player

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

October 18, Agence France Presse
China aids Myanmar's illegal timber trade: report

Bangkok: China knowingly aids trade in illegal timber from northern
Myanmar worth around 300 million dollars a year, some of which is sold in
developed countries, a new report said Tuesday.

Environmental watchdog Global Witness said the unofficial trade involves
about one million cubic metres (35 million cubic feet) of timber a year,
costing Myanmar's state coffers about 250 million dollars annually in lost
taxes.

The trade also exacerbates military-ruled Myanmar's HIV problem, with many
loggers injecting drugs and using prostitutes. Most loggers and
prostitutes are unaware of how to avoid the disease, the report added.

"The destructive logging and illegal timber trade take place with the full
knowledge and complicity of the (Myanmar junta), the Chinese authorities
and ceasefire groups," said the 100-page report, "A Choice for China".

China has signed international treaties and agreements pledging to fight
the trade, but still has to implement its promises at the provincial
level, officials from the London-based watchdog said.

"Two-thirds of the total Burmese exports of timber are illegal, the large
majority of that goes to China," Global Witness official Susanne Kempel
told a press conference, using Myanmar's former name.

"When we looked at the timber trade between the two countries, more than
95 percent of it is illegal, according to Burmese law, and according to
Chinese law."

Chinese customs statistics say more than one million cubic metres (35
million cubic feet) of timber passes into China annually, much of it from
Myanmar's Kachin state, against the 18,000 cubic metres (630,000 cubic
feet) Myanmar's government allows to be exported, Kempel said.

China is a major exporter of wood products to countries including Japan
and the United States, with the latter importing about 3.0 billion dollars
worth of wood-based products from China in 2003, most of it furniture, the
report said.

Among the report's recommendations is for the international community to
pass laws forbidding timber imports bought contrary to national laws, and
help communities in Myanmar through education and environment awareness
programmes.

The illegal trade involves rebel groups which have signed ceasefires with
the junta and who vie with each other to fell patches of forest first,
Kempel said.

Myanmar forbids teak and softwood exports into China, but Global Witness
researchers found plenty of such timber, she said.

"This is out in the open, it's easy to see, and it's taxed by the local
Chinese authorities all along the border."

Myanmar's government told Global Witness only one checkpoint at the
Myanmar-Chinese border legally permitted timber exports, but the
watchdog's staff said they spent a month in the area and counted at least
15.

These extra checkpoints were all staffed by Chinese customs officers, busy
attending to numerous logging trucks. Chinese companies are building and
expanding roads in northern Myanmar to increase the trade, Kempel said.

In 2004-2005, forest products became the Myanmar government's second most
important source of legal foreign exchange worth about 428 million
dollars, or 15.0 percent of the government's total, the report said.

The cross-border illegal trade grew by almost 60.0 percent between 2001
and 2004, it added.

____________________________________

October 16, Shan Herald Agency for News
Junta launches new scorched earth campaign

In a move highly reminiscent to the 1996-98 campaign that had displaced
300,000 people from their ancestral homes and fields, the Burma Army is
again launching a new drive that began last month to realign scattered
villages in southern Shan State in an effort to isolate the resistance
from the local populace, according to latest reports received by S.H.A.N.:

A couple who arrived on the Chiangmai border yesterday told S.H.A.N. two
of  the villages Wanzan (60 households) and Koonkieng (40 households)
where they came from were ordered by the Army on 4 October to move to the
tract seat of Wanpong, Laikha township. (Tract in Burma denotes a cluster
of villages)

"We lost our paddy fields and corn fields that were waiting ot be
harvested, as well as the sesame field that we have just sown," said
Yazing, 40, who brought his wife Nang Li, 30, and three children. "We
decided there and then and we had had enough of being pushed around and
that we should get out while we still have each other."

A year after the 1996-98 campaign the Burma Army had either forced or
allowed the people in the relocated sites to move back to their former
villages. "And now they want us to move again," he said.

Aid workers in Fang, 160 km north of Chiangmai, say similar reports have
been coming from Laikha's neighboring townships of Mongkerng, Kehsi and
Mongnawng. "We expect more refugees to arrive at the border beginning this
month," said one this morning.

The mass exodus had actually started soon after the outbreak of
hostilities between the Burma Army and the Shan State Army-South's former
758th Brigade that had switched allegiance to a new group called Interim
Shan Government (ISG) that declared Independence on 17 April. To which
Rangoon promptly responded by designating it an 'unlawful association' and
launching a crackdown.

According to the ISG, Rangoon had dispatched 7 light Infantry battalions:
346, 372, 542, 544, 562, 563 and 566 from the western state of Arakan, in
addition to local units for its Four Cuts operation that consists of
cutting food, funds, intelligence and recruits by the villagers for the
resistance movements.

For details on the 1996-98 campaign, please visit
http://www.shanland.org/resources/bookspub/humanrights/dispossessed/

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

October 18, Irrawaddy
Padaung in Northern Thailand to return to Burma - Louis Reh

The Padaung, or “long neck,” women in Thailand’s Mae Hong Son Province
have long been a steady tourism draw, but a deal brokered with Burma’s
State Peace and Development Council, the Karenni National People’s
Liberation Front and the Karuna Foundation in Burma could see the Padaung
relocated to Burma’s Karenni State as early as next year, according to a
KNPLF official.

“We [have] already prepared for them in two places near the Maw Chi mine
area [southeast Karenni State],” said Htoo Kyaw, the vice-chairperson of
the KNPLF, which split from the Karenni National Progressive Party in 1978
and signed a ceasefire agreement with the SPDC in June 1994.

“We want our ancient tradition back,” added Htoo Kyaw. “I don’t want our
people to be treated as lower class citizens in another country.”

According to Htoo Kyaw, all the expenditures for the Padaung
resettlement—include living expenses, housing, salaries, sanitation and
other miscellaneous expenses will be covered by the SPDC, KNPLF and Karuna
Foundation.

“We will take full responsibility for them [Padaung] to be safe and
happy,” said Htoo Kyaw.

The Padaung are expected to travel by truck from Mae Hong Son through Mae
Sot to a resettlement area across the Burma border.

One motivation for the relocation plan is clearly commercial. “We can
invite foreigners to visit the resettlement areas,” said Htoo Kyaw, adding
that the Padaung would be better cared for than they were in Thailand.

Local authorities in Mae Hong Son have kept tight control over the Padaung
community, who live in three camps that have earned the nickname “human
zoos.”

The Padaung migrated to northern Thailand more than 10 years ago because
of poor agricultural prospects at home and increasing aggression—including
forced labor—by Burmese junta soldiers.

“They [Padaung] will have more freedom in Burma, and they will get twice
the monthly income than when they were in Thailand,” said Htoo Kyaw,
adding that Thailand severely restricted the movements of Padaung outside
their camps because they had no legal status as immigrants.

The Padaung women in Thailand earn about 1,500 baht (US $38) every month,
from tourists who pay 250 baht (US $6.25) to enter their villages. They
also earn smaller sums from selling traditional clothing, jewelry and
handcrafted goods.

Young female Padaung—a sub-tribe of Burma’s ethnic Karenni people—begin
wearing the traditional neck rings at the age of five or six. As they grow
older, more rings are added. Adult women often wear as many as 23 rings.

Padaung villagers in Thailand have been a boon for tourism over the years,
but often to their own disadvantage. In 1998 Thai police raided a Padaung
village in Chiang Mai Province and charged the businessmen who ran the
tourist attraction with holding the villagers against their will.

Some 300 women and girls live in the three villages to be resettled next
year. Other populations of Padaung women live in the Union of Hill Tribe
Villages in Chiang Rai Province.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

October 18, Prothom Alo (Bangladesh) via BBC
Rohingas involved in militant activities, home ministry instructs for
close monitoring

The Rohingya youth are getting involved in militant activities in the name
of Islam. Several militant groups are using them in their activities. The
Rohingyas have become a new threat for the country and the government.

The law enforcing agencies have been instructed to monitor the movements
of the Rohingyas very closely. The government has decided to take urgent
steps to send the Rohingyas back to Burma, it is learnt.

This issue was discussed at a high level meeting in the home ministry. The
state minister for home affairs, Lutfuzzaman Babar, chaired the meeting.
Inspector-General of Police, Abdul Qaium, the head of Bangladesh Rifles,
Maj-Gen Jahangir Alam Choudhury, the head of Rapid Action Battalion, Abdul
Aziz and other high officials were present there.

Nothing has been officially said about this meeting. The government has
adopted a cautious policy about the Rohingya refugees as some
international rights groups are behind them.

Twenty-five Rohingyas have already been arrested from Chittagong in
connection with militant activities and 17 August blasts, according to
several sources. The intelligence agencies are now certain that militant
groups are using the Rohingyas on the basis of their confessional
statements. Young Rohingya females are also being used according to the
intelligence report.

The movements and the general activities of the Rohingyas are to be
monitored round the clock, according to a source. Police raids are also
being approved in case of necessity.

_____________________________________

October 15, Narinjara News
Shwe Gas campaigners protest against Daewoo in Dhaka

Dhaka: A protest against Daewoo over its involvement in the exploration
and sale of natural gas from Burma to India was held in Dhaka yesterday
morning by the Arakanese student organization, All Arakan Students and
Youths Congress (AASYC) and the Arakan League for Democracy (exile).

The protest was held at Muktangan near the Dhaka Press Club. AASYC’s
acting In Charge of Bangladesh Branch, Tun Maung Thein, says, “We started
our gathering at 11 th is morning. There are about 60 attendants.
Arakanese students and Bangladeshi students demanded Daewoo withdraw from
the Shwe Gas project.”

The protest was arranged to be held in front of the South Korean Embassy,
but because there has been an increased security presence there, the
protest had to move to the nearby area of the Press Club.

Tun Maung Thein reiterates the aims of the Shwe Gas Movement, the platform
of activists against the Shwe Gas pipeline in Western Burma, as such: “We
demand the withdrawal unconditionally from Burma. Daewoo is trying to rob
our natural resources from the people of Burma in cooperation with the
Burmese junta. Daewoo does not care about the people who are suffering
under the repression of the Burmese junta. This is not only illegal, it is
even immoral. Its venture only promotes the detriment, not the development
of Burma. Daewoo should do the right thing and pull itself out from
Burma.”

Daewoo is part of the international consortium which is exploring and
extracting natural gas from the off shore gas field named Shwe Block A, in
Arakan. Daewoo’s share in the consortium is more than 60%.

“We will try to assert pressure on Daewoo internationally and peacefully
now to get out of Burma. If it is not successful, we will have to find
other ways to make them know", says Tun Maung Thein.

It has been learned that a similar demonstration was held in front of
South Korea embassy in Japan, the Netherlands, Britain and India. A number
of Arakanese gas campaigners were also gathering in front of Daewoo
headquarters in Seoul yesterday and demanding Daewoo to get out of Burma.

_____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

October 18, Agence France Presse
Chad and Bangladesh at rock bottom on world corruption list - Lachlan
Carmichael

London: Sleaze watchdog Transparency International reported Tuesday that
Chad, Bangladesh, Turkmenistan and Myanmar were perceived as the most
corrupt countries in the world, while Iceland was the cleanest.

Transparency International said in its annual report that serious levels
of corruption existed in two thirds of the 159 countries surveyed, and
that there was a clear link between poverty and corruption.

Most of the countries that landed at the bottom of the list were African
countries, while those which came in at the top were industrialized Asian
and western countries, according to Berlin-based Transparency
International.

The nations perceived as the most corrupt also rank among the world's
poorest, which shows how corruption and poverty feed off each other,
according to the organization's 2005 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI).

"Corruption is a major cause of poverty as well as a barrier to overcoming
it," locking poor countries in "a cycle of misery," said Transparency
International Chairman Peter Eigen.

"Corruption must be vigorously addressed if aid is to make a real
difference in freeing people from poverty," he said.

Despite progress on many fronts, including the imminent entry into force
of the United Nations Convention against Corruption, 70 countries scored
less than three on the CPI, indicating a severe corruption problem, the
report said.

The CPI index score relates to perceptions of the degree of corruption as
seen by business people and country analysts and ranges between 10, which
is highly clean and zero, which is highly corrupt.

For example, the United States was ranked 17th with a score of 7.6.

Iceland topped the list with a score of 9.7, followed by Finland (9.6),
New Zealand (9.6), Denmark (9.5), Singapore (9.4), Sweden (9.2),
Switzerland (9.1) Norway (8.9), Australia (8.8) and Austria (8.7)

Bottom of the list was Chad (1.7) followed by Bangladesh (1.7),
Turkmenistan (1.8), Myanmar (1.8), Haiti (1.8), Nigeria (1.9), Equatorial
Guinea (1.9), Cote d'Ivoire (1.9), Angola (2.0) and Tajikistan (2.1).

The rankings included shifts in performance over the last year.

An increase in perceived corruption from 2004 to 2005 can be measured in
countries such as Costa Rica, Gabon, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Russia,
Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago and Uruguay, it said.

With a score of 3.2, Sri Lanka ranked number 82 on the list.

On the other hand, a number of countries and territories show a decline in
perceptions of corruption over the past year, including Estonia, France,
Hong Kong, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Qatar, Taiwan and Turkey,
it said.

Hong Kong ranked 15 at 8.3, Japan was 21 at 7.3, France was 18 at 7.5,
Taiwan and Qatar were both ranked 32 at 5.9, Jordan was 37 at 5.7, and
Turkey was 65 at 3.5.

Among other countries on the list, South Africa ranked 36 at 4.5, Malaysia
was 39 at 5.1, Thailand was 59 at 3.8, while India was 88 at 2.9.

_____________________________________

October 18, Irrawaddy
Junta still stalling on workers’ rights, says union group - Clive Parker

The Brussels-based international Confederation of Free Trade Unions has
said there is “little change” in Burma’s poor labor and human rights
record in a report on global working conditions released today.

In its Asia section—entitled “Brutal Repression of Workers’ Rights”—the
ICFTU highlights the continuing incarceration of unionists in Burma and
says forced labor is “continuing unabated” due to government suppression.

“Whatever the written law, in practice, workers who fight to redress
conditions that are often atrocious face threats, violence and murder,” it
says, adding that effectively no trade unions are tolerated in Burma.

The ICFTU criticizes the ruling State Peace and Development Council for
failing to clarify legislation related to workers’ unions, although it
says a ban on the congregation of five or more people effectively
prohibits any kind of union activity.

The report—which documents events up to the end of 2004—highlights the
cases of six trade union-affiliated Burmese currently in prisons
throughout the country. The most high-profile—Myo Aung Thant—was
incarcerated in 1997 for maintaining contacts with the Federal Trade
Unions of Burma, an exile group outlawed by the junta. Myo Aung Thant was
accused of planning to detonate bombs smuggled into Burma in a rice
cooker, an order it claims came from the FTUB. He is currently imprisoned
in Myitkyina, Kachin State.

The most disturbing case, the report says, is that of three FTUB
activists, U Nai Min Kyi, U Aye Myint and U Shwe Mahn who had been
sentenced to death by the junta in November 2003 for contacting Rangoon’s
ILO office, an act which prompted the junta to file charges of high
treason with intent to assassinate top state officials. Their sentences
have since been reduced to two years imprisonment with hard labor
following a lengthy appeals process and negotiations between the ILO and
the SPDC.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy today, ICFTU representative Janek Kuczkiewicz
said there had been other worrying examples of junta persecution of
Burmese workers and unions. Kuczkiewicz highlighted the case of Su Su Nway
who sued local authorities for pressuring her into forced labor, a move
which backfired when the SPDC in turn sentenced her to 18 months
imprisonment earlier this month for abusing government officials.

“We are in discussions now with the ILO as to what the best possibilities
are to help that woman,” Kuczkiewicz said. “The case is very high on the
ILO’s agenda.”

The ILO’s Rangoon office was today unavailable for comment.

Both the ICFTU and the ILO have also been tracking the cases of 10
FTUB-affiliated Burmese arrested earlier this year in connection with
bombings in Rangoon in May.

The SPDC held a press conference announcing their arrests in August,
during which it again labeled the FTUB a terrorist organization for
“training” those it claims were responsible for the attacks.

Kuczkiewicz said he rejected the junta’s charges. “The accusations of the
SPDC are basically completely unfounded.”

“We have put the FTUB and its General Secretary Maung Maung under very
intense questioning,” Kuczkiewicz added, reiterating the ICFTU’s continued
support for the organization.

_____________________________________

October 18, Agence France Presse
Anti-union repression cost 145 lives in 2004: report - Rebecca Frasquet

Brussels: Attacks on trade unions led to 145 deaths last year, most of
them in Colombia, as workers' rights came under pressure worldwide, a
report by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions said
Tuesday.

Colombia -- condemned for "systematic efforts by the government to
undermine the trade union movement" -- was the deadliest country for union
members with 99 murders, the union confederation said.

Other countries identified as major abusers of union rights included
Belarus, Burma, Cambodia, China, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Iran,
Nigeria, the Philippines, Turkey, Venezuela and Zimbabwe, it said.

The overall number of people killed because of their trade union
activities was up 19 from the previous year, the federation said.

The report, which assessed union rights in 136 countries across five
continents, also detailed more than 700 violent attacks on trade unionists
and almost 500 death threats.

In a climate of rapid globalisation, trade unionists were targeted as
threat to competitivity, it said.

"Fourteen people were killed in the Philippines when a bulldozer and
armoured personnel carriers were used to break through a picket, and in
Cambodia, the government is accused of a high-level cover up following the
murders of labour leaders Chea Vichea and Ros Sovannareth," it said.

A perceived threat to Cambodia's share of global trade was apparently the
motivation, the report said.

"This year's survey reveals just how far many governments and employers
are prepared to go in suppressing workers' rights to seek a competitive
edge in increasingly cut-throat global markets," said the federation's
general secretary, Guy Ryder.

"Globalisation must be put on a completely different path, with social
concerns and ending exploitation at the centre, rather than at the
margins," he said.

The federation, which has 233 affiliated unions in 152 countries,
expressed concern over a lack of union rights in China.

"Many workers found themselves detained or arrested, charged and
imprisoned for their involvement in collective protest action during the
year in the People's Republic of China, where trade union rights are not
respected," the report said.

Among former Soviet states, Belarus was singled out by the federation as a
case of extreme governmental intervention where President Lukashenko
"tried to exercise total control over the trade union movement."

In Ukraine, the report accused the security service of paying "particular
attention" to independent trade unions.

It also cited harassment and detention of union members in Georgia.

In Africa, where the International Labour Organisation estimates only six
to 25 percent of workers are formally employed, people faced "anti-union
employers" and "governments who regard organised labour movements as a
threat to power," the federation said.

Zimbabwe was named as "one of the worst culprits" in the poorest and least
developed continent, although Nigeria, Botswana and Kenya were also
criticised after workers were sacked for going on strike.

The Middle East emerged as the region with the least union rights,
particularly as "in many countries the great majority of workers are
migrants with no rights at all", said the survey, with unions still
outlawed in Oman and Saudi Arabia.

In the Americas, the report said the United States had pressed ahead with
sub-regional and bilateral free trade agreements, opposed by workers who
"feared job losses and the further erosion of their rights".

In contrast, the union federation praised Nordic countries for their
strong trade union traditions alongside successful economies, which the
union body said "shows how respect for workers rights can be a foundation
for economic success, and a cornerstone for democracy".

_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

October 18, The Vancouver Sun (British Columbia)
Obdurate Burmese junta starts to feel some heat - Jonathan Manthorpe

The generals who run Burma and who resist all threats or encouragement to
embark on political reform have been watching the clash in Iraq between
the ballot box and the truck bomb with more than common interest.

The junta's conclusion, as might be guessed, is that democracy is far too
dangerous a commodity to be contemplated in Burma, like Iraq an
ill-fitting union of rival ethnic groups.

"They're eager to see democracy take place but they don't want to hurry or
be pressured by others, maybe including the United Nations," Syed Hamid
Albar, the foreign minister of neighbouring Malaysia, said a few days ago
after a visit to the Burmese capital Rangoon.

Just how eager the generals, led by the head of the military junta Gen.
Than Shwe, are to hand over to civilian rule is far more questionable than
Syed Hamid seems to think.

Since seizing power in 1988, the junta has turned aside all international
efforts at reform ranging from friendly "constructive engagement" by
fellow members of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(Asean) to the more aggressive imposition of selective sanctions by much
of the industrialized world.

Instead the generals have refused to acknowledge that the opposition
National League for Democracy won 1990 elections, have kept NLD leader
Aung San Suu Kyi under various forms of detention for most of the past 16
years, and have detained and sometimes killed thousands of pro-reform
activists.

At the same time, the Burmese army has been in almost constant combat
against separatist insurgencies by more than half a dozen ethnic groups
who still want the balanced federation of states they were promised on
independence from Britain in 1948.

A longer indictment includes the military's imposition of forced labour
amounting to slavery on ordinary Burmese and the protection of drug lords
who target the region's young people with floods of narcotics.

There are signs, though, that the junta, which calls itself without any
sense of irony the State Peace and Development Council, has become
rattled.

The generals and especially top general Than Shwe have been shocked and
embarrassed that their ASEAN partners have begun to rebel against the lack
of reform progress in Burma.

This year it was Burma's turn to play host to the annual ASEAN summit, but
several of the governments made it clear they thought this would be
inappropriate while the junta continued its evil ways. Rather than face
the ignominy of being dumped, the generals quietly declined the
opportunity to play ASEAN host.

ASEAN's frustration and impatience with its recalcitrant member appear
destined to intensify.

A group of parliamentarians from ASEAN members Thailand, Indonesia,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Cambodia is moving to have Burma
suspended from the organization until Suu Kyi is released from house
detention and serious reform negotiations get under way. And even the
ever-patient United Nations is coming to the end of its tether.

Reports from the Thai capital of Bangkok say junta leader Than Shwe will
soon retire. The 75-year-old general is a diabetic and said to suffer from
"hypertension."

Bangkok is home to many Burmese exiles and foreign diplomats with regional
watching briefs. Much of the Bangkok barroom chatter is unadulterated
rumour, but there is consistency in these reports.

Few expect the retirement of Than Shwe -- he is likely to retain ultimate
power like "paramount leader" Deng Xiaoping in China even if he does
retire -- to herald a change of direction by the junta. For years a major
problem in dealing with the junta has been that it is composed of
uneducated and coarse men lacking in intelligence or even simple
craftiness.

They do know a threat when they see one, however, and it's not only the
trials of democracy that troubles them about Iraq.

Although Burma has not appeared on any of George W. Bush's lists of
candidates for violent regime change, the generals are aware they fit
Washington's target profile.

So they are in the process of building a new capital at Pyinmana in
central Burma, well away from coastal Rangoon where the U.S. marines would
come ashore.

_____________________________________

October 18, New Straits Times (Malaysia)
Myanmar makes Europe a reluctant player - Verghese Matthews

There is an obvious excitement in Asia today in anticipation of the
emerging regional political architecture and the shifting of the centre of
gravity from the US and Europe to Asia.

It is far from clear at this stage how this nascent process will unfold
and what shape the new Asia will eventually take, but there is little
doubt that whatever the eventual outcome, a re-energised and ascending
Asia will directly or indirectly have a profound effect on the region and
the rest of the world.

Hence, the obvious imperative on the part of both the big and small
players alike to ensure that the emerging political architecture is one in
which there will be space for all of them.

No surprise, therefore, that countries both within and outside the region
are positioning themselves to influence the outcome of the process in
Asia.

Within the region, China, India, Japan, Korea and the Asean countries, in
subtle and not so subtle ways, are all working towards influencing the
process.

Likewise, important actors outside the region, like the United States and
Australia, among others, are making their individual or co-ordinated
moves.

Meanwhile, there are several attendant initiatives like the East Asia
Summit just down the road, the Asean Charter on the horizon, and fresh
attempts around the corner at enhancing the Asia-Pacific Economic
Co-operation forum to provide for its greater involvement.

These initiatives are a natural and legitimate progression in the right
direction and ought to be welcomed.

What is unusual, however, is that in the midst of all these exciting
permutations, there is the most glaring absence of a meaningful European
Union engagement.

Bluntly put, the EU is punching well below its weight – and deliberately
so - in a region with which it has always had strong traditional ties. The
casual observer may be misled into believing that the EU is no longer
seized with Asia.

After all, it is common knowledge that ASEM and Asean-EU ministerial
meetings are not well attended by the European side.

It would further appear, rightly or wrongly, that at best its present
Asian policy is a reactive one.

An example was when Indonesia recently wanted assistance in Aceh and the
EU responded generously, and many lives were the better for it.

Why then is the EU isolating itself? Why the reluctance to be more
involved, why the sulking?

It is indeed a sad commentary that the EU's lack of proactiveness in
matters Asean, and by extension matters Asian, is because of the
involvement of Myanmar in both these equations.

The situation in Myanmar is, of course, serious. It ought to be of
concern. But the really serious question is whether Myanmar should be the
sole prism through which the EU views a rising Asia and/or determine its
engagement with the region as a whole.

We must not have any delusions here. If Myanmar, for example, gave up its
right to be chairman of the Asean Standing Committee, it was not because
of Asean's persuasiveness or the EU's pressure. Myanmar did so because it
was in its national interest. Full stop.

That does not mean Asean and the EU must abandon their respective
campaigns to assist the people of Myanmar and for the Government to move
forward. We must individually and collectively do what we can.

By the same token, it is pertinent to recognise that even within the EU
there are perceptible differences over how relations with Myanmar ought to
be handled.

Increasingly, there are those within the EU and Asean who take the
enlightened position that bilateral problems should not be dragged into
the multilateral arena. This is really the point.

An example of how confusion between bilateral and multilateral approaches
can be an unnecessary impediment to relations between regional groupings
was clearly demonstrated at the ASEM Economic Ministers' Meeting in
Rotterdam on Sept 16-17.

The Netherlands, the host, denied a visa to Myanmar Minister U Soe Tha to
attend the meeting. It apparently did so without consulting other EU
members, some of whom have expressed dissatisfaction with how the Dutch
handled the matter.

Asean ministers responded by refusing to attend.

The Dutch, as a last-ditch attempt to salvage the meeting, then proposed
that the meeting proceed at the Senior Officials level, which Asean agreed
to.

The important point here is that the episode was not just about Myanmar.
It was far bigger than that. It was a clarion call that bilateral problems
should not be brought into a multilateral context. It
was about Asean's credibility and solidarity and an example of how Asean
can be expected to respond when one of its members is discriminated
against in international forums.

It is pertinent to recall here that when Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar joined
ASEM as recently as in 2004, together with the new EU members, they did so
as full and equal members without any conditions attached. At subsequent
ASEM Ministerial Meetings held in Asia, Myanmar was appropriately
represented at the ministerial level - bilateral qualms did not override
multilateral obligations and interests.

That Rotterdam incident was singularly unfortunate. Nevertheless,
countries in the region have no baggage with the EU and would welcome its
presence and contribution to regional and global security and well-being.
It is, of course, up to the EU to decide its foreign policy directions and
whether the narrow concerns of the presiding country ought to propel or
impede the initiatives of the grouping as a whole.

The Rotterdam episode was perhaps an opportunity lost for enhanced EU
participation in the emerging theatre. However, if it proves to be a
catalyst, it will bring dividends to both Asean and the EU, who would be
winners in many ways.

The writer, a former Singapore ambassador to Cambodia, is a visiting
fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.