THE MAN who should have been Burma's prime minister will today ask the Tanaiste, Mr Spring, to try to ensure that the EU does not put trade before human rights in its dealings with Burma.
Dr Sein Win, now his country's prime minister-in-exile, says he fears that the European desire to increase trade with south-east Asia will dilute its concern about repression by the military dictatorship in his country.
At the EU meeting in Singapore earlier this year with the Association of South East Asian States (ASEAN), EU concerns about human rights in Burma were more muted than before and were expressed only on the margins of the meeting, the main purpose of which was to discuss trade.
"We are concerned that the EU position is easing already," Dr Win said on his arrival in Dublin.
He asked to meet Mr Spring because Ireland is still part of the Troika of EU states that conducts the Union's external relations. "Ireland has been supportive of our cause at the United Nations and elsewhere," he said.
Burma is currently governed by a military regime calling itself the State Law and Order Restoration Council (it is known by its acronym SLORC - a word pronounced in a slightly contemptuous tone). The military came to power in a coup in 1962; in 1988 martial law was declared after pro-democracy demonstrations.
While subject to international disapproval, Burma - renamed Myanmar by the military regime - has been edging its way into the international trading system. Last year it became an associate member of the increasingly powerful ASEAN trading bloc.
Its ASEAN neighbours describe their policy towards it as one of "constructive engagement", and Burma appears to be on course for full ASEAN membership. Constructive engagement involves some linkage between increased trade and improvements in Burma's human rights record.
"We cannot always see anything constructive coming from this engagement," says Dr Win. "We are asking for a real constructive engagement which would look at what the people of Burma want, which is democracy.
Since 1988 the EU has stopped, all development aid and imposed an arms embargo and visa restrictions. "There is no reason for Europe's policy to be eased," he says. "Those measures were taken because of the human rights situation, and the repression is getting worse, not better."
But he fears EU pressure will be replaced by more constructive engagement. The EU sees huge potential in developing trade with ASEAN. Many ASEAN states in turn have economic interests in Burma, which is a source of cheap gas, timber, minerals and labour.
In addition, according to Dr Win, they may fear the Burma democracy movement because its success could influence the people of other ASEAN states. While most of them call their political systems democratic, they would not be recognised as such in the West.
The pro-democracy cause in Burma has a high international profile mainly because of Aung San Suu Kyi. A daughter of Gen Aung San, the revered Burmese national figure who was assassinated in 1947, Suu Kyi emerged from a quiet, mainly domestic life in Oxford in 1988 to become the internationally known spokeswoman of opposition to military rule.
She was on a low-profile visit to Rangoon to visit her ill mother in 1988 when anti-government demonstrations broke out. "I could not, as my father's daughter, remain indifferent to all that was going on," she told a vast rally at the time.
She stayed in Burma, although her husband and two sons were still in Oxford. In 1989 she was placed under house arrest for five years. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 and became the living symbol of Burma's democracy movement. Her movement is so restricted still as to make the ending of her house arrest in 1995 virtually meaningless.
Dr Win was elected to a Burmese parliament in 1990 when the National League for Democracy (NLD) won 80 per cent of the vote, but the SLORC made it clear they would not recognise the result. Dr Win, chosen as prime minister, and 19 others left the country to form a government-in-exile; two have since been assassinated.
He and his colleagues now devote their time to lobbying the international community to keep the pressure on the SLORC. Within the EU, says Dr Win, Denmark is very supportive and is ready to agree to impose economic sanctions. Other Nordic countries are also very sympathetic. But Britain and France oppose sanctions: both have significant oil interests in Burma.
In Ireland there is a significant level of support and lobbying on behalf of Burma's pro-democracy movement. Burma Action Ireland was set up nine months ago and has been lobbying trade unions and politicians of all parties to ask Dail questions of the Minister for Foreign Affairs in connection with the situation in Burma. The group has received a sympathetic hearing from MEPs of all parties, and the European Parliament has been supportive.
Trocaire, which jointly organised Dr Win's visit with Burma Action Ireland, operates humanitarian assistance programmes in Thailand for Burmese refugees who have come across the border. Trocaire also campaigns in Ireland on the issue.