British Ambassador

SPEAKER British Ambassador to Burma, Mark Canning

DATE 26 September 2008

British Ambassador to Burma, Mark Canning, was interviewed on BBC World News on 26 September, the anniversary of the protests in Burma.

Read the transcript

Mike Embley (ME): Well let's talk now to Mark Canning, British Ambassador to Burma, he's on the line from the Burmese city of Rangoon. Ambassador welcome, thanks for coming through to us. I understand, obviously, you have to deal with the Burmese Government and officials, you have to be a little careful in what you say. What is your impression how Burma changed if at all in the past year?

Mark Canning (MC): Well it's been a bad year. We had, of course, the cyclone in May which killed a hundred and forty thousand people and there's also been, despite the efforts of the UN to achieve a political solution, a disappointing lack of progress on the political front. So it's been a bad year.

ME: And still, I think according to all the reports we see, more than two thousand political prisoners. Do you sense any move towards democracy or are they false hopes?

MC: Well the UN's been working very hard to achieve a solution to the underlying political issues. There was a rare glimmer of hope this week with the release of half a dozen or so NLD activists but looked at over all and measured against what the Security Council has been asking for since last October the outcome has been pretty disappointing.

The security, the Security Council asked for three things. They asked for the release of political prisoners; we've had those few come out this week but two thousand or so are still held including, of course, Aung San Suu Kyi, her deputy and many other important figures.

They asked for the establishment of a dialogue between Government, opposition and the ethnic nationalities. There was some faltering moves in that direction in, in November but then that was fairly adroit. So over all no there has not been much progress.

ME: Ambassador can I just ask you about some people who don't often cross the radar? We're hearing about one of Burma's smallest ethnic minorities, the Mara, up there in the Western state of Chin. One of our people, Bernadette Sandhu, for the BBC has been there. She's suggesting that famine is killing hundreds of them, local human rights groups believing food shortages have brought perhaps a hundred thousand Mara to a critical point. Are you hearing anything of this and anything that might be done for them?

MC: We are. I'm not an expert on the detail but we understand there is a problem. I know that the UN have had a team up there in the last month looking at the scale of the difficulties and producing an evaluation for the donor community. And we, and I presume all the other donors have now received a proposal which we're looking at and hope to respond to. But as you suggest it goes to show (indistinct) some of the serious humanitarian issues that are out there in some of the hidden corners of this country; Chin state you've mentioned but there are other examples. The Muslim population in Northern (indistinct) state is very, very hard pressed and then, of course, you've got the situation on the border with Thailand.

ME: Ambassador you've been there in Burma at momentous times in Burmese history, briefly if you can what are your memories of those demonstrations a year ago?

MC: It was an extraordinary time, I mean it, it's hard to describe how extraordinary it was unless you've lived here during the, what you could call, what passes for the more normal times but it was an extraordinary upswelling of, of popular emotion and I think, although I obviously can't speak for the people themselves, I think it's left them deeply sad, deeply disillusioned and one senses that the mood of them at the moment is a mixture of sort of resentment and anger.

ME: Mark Canning, British Ambassador to Burma, thank you very much indeed.