Sir, - As secretary of Burma Action-Ireland, I welcome the article by Sandy Barron (The Irish Times, April 4th) highlighting the human rights abuses by the brutal military dictatorship in Burma. This takes the form of slave labour, murder, rape and torture.
Burma Action-Ireland is a voluntary group which has been in existence for two years. Our main task is to campaign for democracy in Burma and to raise people's consciousness regarding the activities of the military dictatorship which rules the country.
This so-called government has kept the leader of the National League for Democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi, under virtual house arrest since 1990 when her party won 82 per cent of the votes. This courageous woman won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1991.
We are grateful to the various Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Dick Spring, Ray Burke and David Andrews, for the work they have done over the last two years to put Burmese issues on the agenda of the EU. But much more needs to be done. Ireland can play a leading role in the coalition of countries who are pressing for greater co-ordinated EU action.
Aung San Suu Kyi has called repeatedly for economic sanctions against Burma. The major block to this policy is France with its giant oil company Total, which has almost completed a huge pipeline from Burma to Thailand. This could only be done with the support of the military dictatorship which persists in violating its own people's human rights. - Yours, etc.,
Kathleen Forde,
Secretary, Burma Action-Ireland, 10 Upper Camden Street, Dublin 2.