Finland veroorzaakt controverse door Myanmar uit te nodigen voor Europees-Aziatische top (en)

Helsinki has invited the foreign minister of Burma to the 10 September summit of Asian and EU leaders - ASEM - in Finland, amid complaints from human rights activists and in contrast to previous EU decisions to freeze the pariah state out of international meetings.

Burma - renamed Myanmar by the military junta which seized power in 1988 - is currently facing an EU visa ban, an EU arms embargo and trade restrictions due to reports of grave human rights abuses including forced labour and forcible relocation of civilians.

The Dutch EU presidency last year refused EU entry to Burmese officials keen to take part in an ASEM finance ministers' gathering.

In 2004, the EU tried to block Burma from taking part in an ASEM summit due to its mistreatment of opposition leader and Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.

But Helsinki is setting a new tone.

"According to our preliminary information, Myanmar is going to be represented by the foreign minister, so our intention is to grant a visa for the minister," Hanna Lehtimen, the Finnish secretary-general of the ASEM secretariat told AP, adding that EU visa ban exemptions for other Burmese officials will be handled on a case-by-case basis.

Finnish foreign ministry staff said the invitation is in accordance with EU policies, with senior diplomat Pekka Metso explaining that the Aung San Suu Kyi case created special conditions in 2004.

"The invitation is in no way a statement on the political or human rights situation in Myanmar. Those issues will come up at the ASEM summit itself," Mr Metso said, Finnish media report.

Finland-based Burmese refugees, such as Ko Ko Thett, do not share Helsinki's vision of improving human rights standards in the country via dialogue, however.

"Dialogue is always good, but the military junta in Burma has never conducted any dialogue with anybody ever," he said. "Discussion during the ASEM meeting would probably only help to give the leadership a bigger legitimacy."

"It feels like a blow in the face," Mr Thett added. "The five hundred Burmese refugees in Finland have come a long way and now they are forced to see their new homeland's leaders shake hands with their former oppressors."