FRANCE ON BURMA: IT'S ALL ABOUT CHINA?

C O N F I D E N T I A L PARIS 001090

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/20/2017
TAGS: PREL PHUM UNSC BM FR
SUBJECT: FRANCE ON BURMA: IT'S ALL ABOUT CHINA?

REF: A. STATE 33997


B. STATE 20000

Classified By: Political Minister-Counselor Josiah Rosenblatt
for reasons 1.4 b and d.


1. (C) SUMMARY: Following the defeat of the Burma resolution
in the U.N. Security Council, the MFA -- never fully
convinced of the value of a resolution over a presidential
statement -- believes Burma is a dead letter in the UNSC and
fears further UNSC action would provoke the Chinese, whose
cooperation France and the U.S. need on such issues as Nepal
and Sri Lanka. For these reasons, the MFA likely will not
support the full inclusion of Burma in the Working Group on
Children and Armed Conflict's 2007 Workplan. END SUMMARY.


2. (C) Poloff delivered refA demarche March 19 to Benoit
Guidee, MFA desk officer in the International Organizations
Bureau for the UNSC, Jeremie Petit, desk officer for Burma,
and Claudin Serre, desk officer following child soldiers in
the Human Rights Bureau. Guidee summarized what has been the
French policy on Burma since the resolution failed to pass in
the Security Council: Although the GoF supported what he
characterized as the USG's "justified" push for a resolution
on Burma, it was now time for like-minded nations to
acknowledge that scrutiny of Burma by the UNSC is a
non-starter for the Chinese, and adjust future strategy
accordingly.


3. (C) Guidee said the MFA believes that to insist upon
Burma,s full inclusion in the 2007 workplan of the Working
Group on Children and Armed Conflict could trigger Chinese
ire and thereby imperil the working group's broader efforts.
Further, the MFA fears that forcing the Burma question now
would risk "instrumentalizing8 the working group on child
soldiers by using an issue with broad support as a means to
accomplish what the draft resolution could not. Finally,
Serre worried that focusing only on child soldiers * or on
human rights, or on forced labor (refB) ) would not capture
the scale of Burma,s abuses, which are deeply rooted in a
lack of good governance and an absence of democracy. "Child
soldiers can't substitute for a resolution," she concluded.


4. (C) Guidee pointed to China's constructive participation
in Security Council negotiations on both Nepal and Sri Lanka,
suggesting that it might reconsider its collaborative
approach to international negotiations if it believed that
other Permanent Members were impinging on Chinese interests
in its own backyard. Further, Petit added that the French
mission to the U.N. has begun to perceive a change of
attitude among the Burmese delegation in New York, and a
softening of the delegation's past refusal to acknowledge
what other nations view as the undeniable problem of child
soldiers in Burma.


5. (C) On the question of presumptive discussion of Annex II
countries, Guidee said the MFA recognizes that outstanding
procedural concerns remain to be addressed. However, he
added that questions on the working group agenda are better
discussed between delegations in New York. He did offer that
the GoF plans to push for putting Burma on the agenda in
November.


6. (C) COMMENT: Child soldiers is FM Douste-Blazy's signature
issue. His stated determination to lead international
efforts to combat child soldiers, combined with the MFA,s
sensitivity to China and its original preference for a PRST
versus a resolution, makes it unlikely that the French would
revisit their position and add Burma to the workplan. In
that vein, the MFA reminded us that China, but not the U.S.,
had attended the February 6 conference in Paris on child
soldiers. END COMMENT.













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