Rohingya News Agency –(mizzima): Five months ago, EU ambassador Roland Kobia arrived in Myanmar to open the EU delegation office. Since then, Mr Kobia has been confronted with the Rakhine strife, a stalling peace process and a problematic census. Mizzima’s Hans Hulst sat down with Mr Kobia to discuss the EU’s agenda in Myanmar and the challenges ahead. Since arriving in Yangon you have been busy establishing the EU delegation office. What is the current status? I’m the first resident ambassador after the decision was made to open a full fledged office. Besides the staff and the budget, that’s a political signal, yet another signal after the sanctions have been lifted. We haven’t reached our cruising altitude yet. When I came in September, there were only four people here. Now we have about twenty. We will grow to a staff of forty employees in the next months. My first priority is to establish a well functioning delegation that can push its agenda forward. We actually want to deliver after the [joint EU-Myanmar] Task Force meeting last November, when [EU foreign policy chief] Catherine Ashton and a number of European commisioners came to Myanmar. Agreements were signed, and committments on both sides to continue working together in moving the transition ahead were repeated. About the EU’s agenda: what is its focus in Myanmar? Our portfolio in Myanmar is the classical one. We work on political dialogue, we have a role in coordinating political actions and positions of member states. We engage with all the local stakeholders on political issues, the government, ethnics, civil society and political parties. That’s one pillar. The second pillar is development. We bring about one hundred million euros a year to Myanmar. Actually, we are one of the biggest donors around. These are grants, I’m not even mentioning potential loans. The European Investment Bank currently is negotatiating a framework to be active in the country. The third pillar is promoting trade. For example, we are launching a European Chamber of Commerce in Myanmar. The EU is one of the main supporters of the peace process, both financially and politically. Lately the peace process seems to be faltering. Are you happy with the performance of the Myanmar Peace Center, which receives EU funding? It’s a bumpy road, like all peace processes. But overall I think they’re doing a good job. More bilateral ceasefires have been reached. Now they’re aiming for a nationwide ceasefire agreement. The process indeed seems to have slowed a little bit. I guess that’s normal when you get near the finishing line. The momentum still seems to be positive, though. Do you feel that Myanmar Peace Center is independent enough as a peace broker? Obviously, MPC is very close to the government. It is, but we called on MPC to be as inclusive as possible, to include civil society and different political colours in the process. The more inclusive the peace process is, the more sustainable the agreement will be. Because there will be more ownership of people. With regards to budget, we are discussing the next block that we want to put at the disposal of the peace process and we are readying ourselves to support the next phase, the political dialogue, if the Government asks us to do so. There’s a yearly budget of 25 million euros for peace building. Were you able to spend that money in 2013? We are looking into the different modalities of how we are going to spend the allotted funds. For now, there’s no real need. This will change when the political dialogue phase starts. We are now finalizing our internal readiness, to address the needs when they come up. The EU, through its humanitarian agency, ECHO, is pursuing an humanitarian agenda in Myanmar in an impartial way. People are helped regardless of race, religion and gender. Another humanitarian organisation, Medecins sans Frontières, has been expelled from Rakhine recently. What is your comment on this precedent? We regret that there is tension between the local communities and MSF. There are also tensions with the UN family. I was in Rakhine last month, with the other ambassadors. We could sense the tension. I don’t think the expulsion of MSF is linked to the census, although the theory in itself is interesting and the census certainly is a sensitive and important issue for the country. The role of MSF is not to monitor what happens during the census. It think the expulsion is linked to the Du Chee Yar Than incident. Our feeling is that the humanitarian community is full of good will. They are here to help human beings, not certain groups. Maybe we should enter into a dialogue, explain more, change misperceptions. Sometimes problems are the result of misunderstandings. Hate and prejudice seem to be everywhere, in the press and in communities, against the Rakhine Muslims and organisations providing them with humanitarian assistence. We need to take the bull by the horns. The longer you wait to address a problem, the harder it is to find solutions. When the ambassadors went to Rakhine we discussed the situation with everybody: the Rakhine, Rohingya, Kaman Muslims, Buddhist monks, the Goverment. We called for dialogue to stop the separation. The best way to find solutions is to talk and address the problem. We shouldn’t wait for the elections to find remedies for this thorny issue. In a few weeks the first census in thirty years will take place. What is the role of the EU in this process? Several European countries are involved in this. The leading European donor is the UK, via DFID [Department for International Development]. The EU is providing political support to the UNFPA and the Government. We participate in many meetings, but we are not funding. The census has been widely criticized, by ethnic organisations, the International Crisis Group and the Transnational Institute. There have been calls to postpone the census or to make the questionnaire simpler, for example, by removing the questions about ethnicity. There are concerns the census might prove politically explosive. What is the EU’s opinion on the census? We’re not entirely part of it, so it is not for me say if the census should go ahead. What we have to look at is basically what the Government wants, what the country wants. It is their own census. If people have concerns, we should try to address these concerns to make it the best census possible. The first purpose of the census is to have a snapshot of what the country really is. We will have data which will put us in a better position to help Myanmar. The data quality will be quite different from 1983 [the previous census]. Do you feel the transition is still on track? Journalists are being arrested for doing their job, fighting continues in Kachin State and the situation in Rakhine State is disturbing. Any transition in any country has always been a bumpy road. It’s always difficult. If you look at it in macro terms, the big picture, I would say the trend is still positive. If you look at the curve with a microscope, we are currently in a little dip. That is totally normal. Of course I’m sad about certain developments, for example regarding media freedom. We certainly look forward to positive developments in media freedom, freedom of association, and freedom of speech. I guess the closer we come to the elections the more tense the situation will be. We shouldn’t draw conclusions too hastily. Just look at the overall trend and keep supporting people who are reform minded. There is so much hate around. Some people don’t dare to speak out anymore on the Rakhine Muslim issue. Even respected democratic parties keep quiet or turn out to be pretty rabid. I can’t deny the EU is concerned about Rakhine. Look, I was serving in South Africa in the years that [Nelson] Mandela was released and the De Klerk Government took over from Botha. Mandela was released, and was asked by a journalist: you will take revenge now, right? Mandela disagreed. He said it was time for a new chapter. Black and whites had to live together. He used the image of a zebra. If you shoot it in either a black or a white stripe, the zebra dies. This applies to Myanmar too. It is time for reconciliation. People should work together. There is so much potential. Myanmar could be the next Asian dragon economy. In order to maximize all this potential, you need a strong, united country. In this respect Rakhine is not good. What if it spills over to other states and the snowball grows? That would be counterproductive. The EU is in touch with many stakeholders. You regularly talk to National League for Democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, for example. Do you feel that she and her party are ready to govern after the 2015 elections, if elected? It is good that the political landscape is more pluralistic. Whether the NLD can govern or not, I don’t know. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi obviously is a charismatic and intelligent person. But I don’t know the party well enough to judge its capacity to lead. How can you say in advance if a person will be a good ruler or not? Often the job makes the man or woman. What I believe is that Myanmar has been going through difficult times. The level of education is not up to international standards. My opinion is that the next Government needs to surround itself with the best people in town. That means not looking at party colour. The capacity of people to perform should be paramount. I hope to see a government that can maximize the great potential of this country. What do you want to have achieved in four years time, when your tenure as EU ambassador ends? By that time I hope I will be able to say the EU has humbly helped to move Myanmar forward, in the direction it decided upon itself. Our mood is not to pressure. It is to help, to support. A cooperative mood. If we disagree with things, we say so. I’m in Nay Pyi Taw every week. The atmosphere is good. The Government is willing to listen and the EU will be open and frank. That’s the way friends behave. Biography: Roland Kobia, 49, began his career with the European Commission in 1991 and served in various roles until being appointed deputy head of mission of the EU’s delegation to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2000. He later became head of the Regional Political Section covering 12 African countries. His next position was a three-year appointment as advisor for international relations to the EU Energy Commissioner. In 2009 he was appointed EU ambassador to Azerbeidjan. He arrived in Yangon in September 2013 to become the first EU ambassador to serve in Myanmar. عدد القراءات: 19
Posted on: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 05:49:38 +0000