Bkk Post-EU pressure on Burma payin

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Subject: Bkk Post-EU pressure on Burma paying off

EU pressure on Burma paying off
Achara Ashayagachat


Burma has signalled its readiness to discuss any issue Europe may want to
raise in exchange for participation in an Asean-European Union meeting in
Berlin next month, a senior official said yesterday.

The signal came in a letter from Burmese Foreign Minister Win Aung to
Thailand's Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan.

Dated January 28 but received in Bangkok yesterday, the letter followed a
report that Germany would try to find a way for Burma to attend the March 30
meeting if it was willing to discuss human rights.

"I'm ready to discuss any matter the European side may wish to address about
developments in Burma," Mr Win Aung said in the letter. "I also have so much
to tell them about developments in Burma."

He also said he looked forward to the EU troika of past, present and future
presidents (Austria, Germany and Finland) and the European Commission, which
deals with the EU's trade affairs.

Mr Win Aung's letter arrived in Bangkok after Thailand failed, during a
January 28-29 talks in Berlin, to secure Europe's agreement to admit Burma
to the ministerial meeting.

According to Foreign Ministry deputy spokesman Kitti Wasinondh, senior
German officials informed Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs Saroj
Chavanaviraj that Germany was hard put to convince EU colleagues to allow
Burma to take part unless it improves democracy and human rights.

Before leaving for the talks, Mr Saroj said Germany had let it be known that
it would try to find a way for Burma to attend the ministerial meeting in
March if it agreed to talk about human rights.