By IPS Correspondents
BRUSSELS, Jul 27 2007 (IPS)

For nearly 20 years, the European Union has applied a ban on weapons sales to Burma in protest at the brutal military dictatorship in the country. According to human rights campaigners, this embargo risks unravelling because firms from several EU countries are involved in building military helicopters destined for Burma.

Since late last year India has been in negotiations with the ruling junta in Rangoon on selling it a consignment of advanced light helicopters.

The helicopters were developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) in association with the German firm Eurocopter Deutschland. Among their components are rockets, guns and engines from France, rocket launchers from Belgium, brake systems from Italy, fuel tanks and gearboxes from Britain and self-protection equipment from Sweden.

The sale of these helicopters would appear to breach the EU&#39s embargo on weapons sales to Burma. This legally binding measure applies to both direct and indirect transfers and covers both full weapons systems and components.

The ban was first introduced in 1988, the year that mass execution of student protesters in Burma provoked an international outcry.

It was theoretically strengthened in 1996, when it became part of an EU &#39common position&#39 that was subsequently renewed in 2002 and last year. The Union&#39s governments formally cited their frustration with ongoing human rights violations and lack of progress in transforming Burma into a democracy, when renewing their position.

They have been especially critical of how Aung Saan Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for many years; her party, the National League for Democracy, won a majority in a 1990 general election but this was nullified by the military junta.

Mark Farmaner from Burma Campaign UK said it is perturbing that the arms embargo is under threat, when it appeared to be one of the few sanctions imposed by the Union against Rangoon that was being upheld.

"This was the only part of the common position that we thought was actually being implemented," he told IPS. "There&#39s a visa ban but generals can still travel. And there&#39s an investment ban that doesn&#39t stop investment. If we discover now that the arms ban is not being implemented, then we might as well pack up and go home."

India is currently the fourth largest trading partner with Burma. The New Delhi and Rangoon governments have set a target of achieving a trade worth 1 billion dollars between the two countries in 2006-07.

Growing military cooperation between them has been prompted both by India&#39s allegations that insurgent groups based in Burma are operating in north-east India and by concerns over China&#39s expanding commercial activities in south-east Asia.

The United Nations has gathered evidence indicating that human rights abuses, including torture, summary executions and the recruitment of child soldiers, are systematic in Burma. In February, UN special rapporteur Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro reported that more than one million people had been displaced in eastern Burma in 1996-2006. He calculated that there had been over 3,000 incidents of destruction, abandonment or relocation of villages in the region during that time.

Farmaner exhorted EU governments to be more vocal in opposing human rights abuses in Burma, especially by pressuring the Indian government to cease its military cooperation with Rangoon. "This needs to be done at the highest level," he said. "It is not something that can be left for junior civil servants."

Saferworld, a conflict resolution advocacy group, published a report earlier this month on arms sales to Burma.

It pointed out that there is no EU-wide control system in place to guarantee that the EU&#39s embargo is enforced. Some governments have succeeded in exploiting its loopholes, the report adds. France, for example, claims that the engines made by French firm Turbomeca for the Indian helicopters are civilian, rather than military items.

Saferworld also contends that there is an onus on EU states to ensure that components made by companies on their soil are not sold onto another country and then re-exported to a regime with a track record of repression.

Roy Isbister, a Saferworld campaigner noted that the embargo "explicitly states that no military equipment should be supplied, either directly or indirectly, for use in Myanmar," as Burma is officially known.

"What&#39s the point in having an arms embargo if it is not going to be implemented or enforced?" he asked.

Helen Hughes from Amnesty International said that EU states need to pay greater heed to the end-use of military components made by Western firms. "Otherwise, these states could find themselves indirectly propping up a brutal regime which they themselves have condemned and whose violations have amounted to crimes against humanity," she added.

Harn Yawnghwe, director of the Euro-Burma Office in Brussels, said the EU should be trying to persuade India, China and the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to adopt a united stance of opposing human rights abuses in Burma.

"Without international consensus and cooperation, the Burmese military will continue to exploit differences and play one country off against another," he told IPS.

"The sale of arms to the military regime in Burma is unacceptable as it contributes to the prolonged suffering of the Burmese people. We hope that the EU will encourage India to join with other neighbouring countries and the international community to work towards an inclusive democracy in Burma.

"We would like to see the EU using its means to convince the Indian government that its campaign to woo the Burmese generals by selling arms and cooperating in military operations is unlikely to bring the benefits it hopes. The Burmese military will only exploit any friendship offered to them."

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