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SCMP-Envoy arrives for talks on rig



Subject: SCMP-Envoy arrives for talks on rights

South China Morning Post
Monday, August 2, 1999

BURMA
Envoy arrives for talks on rights
WILLIAM BARNES in Bangkok

Australian human rights commissioner Chris Sidoti arrived in Rangoon
yesterday for talks with junta officials on the establishment of an
independent human rights commission in Burma.
Mr Sidoti's four-day visit follows talks at the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (Asean) meeting in Singapore last week between Burmese Foreign
Minister Win Aung and his Australian counterpart, Alexander Downer.

Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has refused to approve Mr
Sidoti's visit.

Nevertheless, Canberra is pressing ahead because it is eager to break what
it sees as the political stalemate in Burma.

Mr Sidoti will discuss with the military regime the technicalities of
establishing a human rights commission.

The ruling generals have surprised their critics by accepting a visit that -
by implication at least - touches on the hitherto banned topic of widespread
military abuses against the civilian population.

Ms Aung San Suu Kyi refused to endorse Mr Sidoti's mission "because she
doesn't believe that the results will be truly independent", said a
diplomatic source.

By going ahead without the approval of a woman widely regarded as an
international icon of beleaguered democracy, Australia may be playing point
man for Western governments that have grown frustrated over the failure of
their policies of isolation.

His visit also underlines the increasing willingness of foreign governments
and organisations to deal with a regime that Ms Aung San Suu Kyi would
prefer to see forced to negotiate with the opposition first.

Mr Sidoti's visit was partly inspired by departing Australian Ambassador
Lyndell Mclean's enthusiasm to explore ways of "getting through" to the
regime.

She recently defended Australia for being one of very few Western
governments to attend Interpol's recent conference on narcotics in Rangoon.

Mr Downer said in Singapore last week that European sanctions against Burma
had "not worked all that well", that United States investment and other
restrictions had "not borne fruit" and that the Asean policy of so-called
constructive engagement "has not been terribly successful".


Mr Downer noted that Asean nations, although reluctant to publicly criticise
Burma, wanted to see the military regime "moving forward" on issues such as
the adoption of a new constitution, which would allow the holding of new
elections.

Asean's "constructive engagement" has not only failed to bring about any
softening of Rangoon's almost total intolerance towards dissent; it has
moved political repression into an even higher gear this year.

A decade after the military ignored the overwhelming election victory of Ms
Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, some observers appear to
feel the wait has been long enough.

The original plan had been to keep Mr Sidoti's trip secret until it was
over.

In revealing it, Mr Downer claimed that Rangoon was keen on the visit.

Few critics of the regime will believe it is interested in anything other
than garnering whatever public relations scraps foreign governments care to
throw its way.

It is possible, however, that Rangoon is serious about setting up a human
rights commission to conform with Asean policy.

There is the possibility that by doing so it may - inadvertently perhaps -
break the wall of silence that has protected the military establishment.