EU condemns Suu Kyi trial

European Union foreign ministers agreed on Monday to look at how sanctions on Burma might be toughened over its treatment of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, but some said only Asian nations could influence the military government.

The ministers are set to press their counterparts from the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to take firm action against Burma's military junta at a May 25 meeting, officials said.

"We have an agreement to investigate more sanctions, we have an agreement that we should pursue the ASEAN track next week ... and we have an agreement that we need to come back to that issue," British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said after a meeting with EU counterparts in Brussels.

Unanimous condemnation

The regime's decision to arrest Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi and commit her to what Miliband called a "show trial" has provoked outrage in Europe and dominated Monday's regular EU talks.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that the trial against Aung San Suu Kyi was further evidence of the state of human rights in Burma.

"The trial against Aung San Suu Kyi is an indication of the continued disregard for basic human rights in Myanmar (Burma)," Steinmeier said on the sidelines of the meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.

"To lock away and sentence (Suu Kyi) does not bring stability or reconciliation. In this way, the scheduled elections will become a farce," Steinmeier said.

"I expect the trial to not only be postponed, but to be immediately stopped and Ms Suu Kyi be set free at last," the minister added.

The other EU ministers echoed these sentiments, condemning the trial of Burma's pro-democracy icon, which got under way in the capital of Rangoon shortly before the start of the meeting in Brussels.

No sanctions yet

However, despite debating the possibility, the foreign ministers stopped short of bringing in more sanctions against the country's regime, instead calling for more cooperation with regional powers such as China and India.

"This is not the moment to lower the sanctions, this is the moment to increase them," said EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

The Czech government, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, is "ready to discuss the reinforcement of sanctions," but first there "will be a call on the Burmese authorities to release Aung San Suu Kyi," its foreign minister, Jan Kohout, said.

But other ministers pointed out that the extension of the sanctions had not stopped the Burmese regime putting Suu Kyi on trial just a fortnight before her six years of house arrest were to end.

The sanctions "have not achieved much. This is one of the big problems that we always have with sanction policies," Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb said.

Instead, a number of top officials called on the EU to step up its cooperation with China, India and other regional actors in a bid to pressurize the Burmese regime.

"We have to reinforce the dialogue with Burma's neighbours ... We have been doing all of that, but maybe not in a sufficient way," EU Foreign Affairs Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said.

"We have to engage with the other countries in the region," agreed Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, whose country will assume the EU presidency on July 1.

One month ago, EU foreign ministers extended through April 2010 a package of sanctions against some 500 regime figures and their families, as well as against some 80 businesses linked to the regime, in a bid to urge them towards democratic reforms.

Suu Kyi went on trial on Monday, facing up to five years in jail after Burma's government said she had broken the terms of her house arrest in connection with an incident involving US citizen John Yettaw, who is alleged to have spent two days in her house this month.

Suu Kyi, 63, was expected to plead not guilty to the charges.

The junta's critics have accused it of using the episode as a pretext to keep Suu Kyi in jail during a politically sensitive period leading up to a general election planned for next year.

mrm/nda/dpa/Reuters/AP

Editor: Nancy Isenson