Karen envoy defends choice of venue

Politics

Karen envoy defends choice of venue

The Karen National Union's top negotiator, on his way to join his Shan counterpart on a lobbying tour of Europe, told S.H.A.N. the Karen acceptance of East Timor's recent offer to serve as a neutral ground for future peace talks with Rangoon could not be read as rejection of Thailand.

"The Royal Thai government has already been very helpful setting up and underwriting the costs of previous talks without ever trying to pressure or influence any of the parties concerned," said Saw Sarky in response to S.H.A.N.'s query on 1 September report by Dictatorship Watch entitled East Timor offers to host KNU-SPDC ceasefire talks. "Thai leaders have already shown admirable political judgement by facilitating our trips to Rangoon as well as allowing both sides to meet on the Thai soil without the slightest interference. Moreover, we are not forgetting that Thailand is hosting more than 100,000 Karen refugees on its soil."

Saw Sarky who had informed the Karen leadership of the East Timorese invitation said the Karen would very much like Thailand to be one of the host countries during the many rounds of talks he envisaged. "It is not us who will decide who's going to be our host," he explained. "The matter must be decided by the respective governments of the countries who are concerned with Burma's plight."

Xanana Gusmao

Dr Jose Ramos-Horta

There are several reasons why East Timor is an ideal rendezvous, he elaborated:

• It is non-aligned

• It has no influential political or trade ties in the region, therefore not in a position to influence or pressure, much less manipulate either party

• Its leaders, especially President Xanana Gusmao and Dr Jose Ramos-Horta, have a lot of prestige in international circles

• They have also never made any hostile public statement against the ruling military council of Burma (Dr Ramos-Horta had even publicly spoken against Burma sanctions)

• The traveling distance to East Timor either from Rangoon or Bangkok is not prohibitive

• What is more, it had volunteered publicly to be supportive of any political dialogue in Burma.

"It goes without saying that both EU countries and the United States are out of the question not only because of their strong SPDC stand but also the geographical distances that would make logistics and transportation costs a nightmare," he added.

It remains to be seen how Rangoon will respond to the Karen proposal to choose East Timor as a neutral venue. So far it has repeatedly turned down any suggestion of a non-partisan meeting place.