I want to welcome everyone, especially Rebecca, once again. I appreciate it.
I was part of a parliamentary delegation that travelled to Burma. At that time there was a sense of optimism. We met with Aung San Suu Kyi for part of an afternoon and we visited the house where, unfortunately, we learned, as Mr. Sweet has indicated, that 25% of the army was seated in that room. Worse still, the top two generals of the country, one was the speaker of the upper house and one was the speaker of the lower house...so clearly, when we met with Aung San Suu Kyi.... I had a conversation with her. Everybody in the street was telling us she would be the next president, and I said to her that in my view, there was no hope of that happening unless she was able to negotiate a power sharing deal with those two generals because they had no reason to give up power.
The advantage I think they have is that they are aging. There may be the potential for setting aside past grievances and allowing them to move forward, but unless that's guaranteed.... I'm really, really concerned.
We set up a new embassy there and we had an ambassador go in around that time. I sense Mr. Sweet's disappointment over there. We all share it because we had great hopes. What I'm hearing is that the same level of impunity is there that has always been there. Until you have the rule of law, and where women who are attacked get justice, then I think that's down the road a way.
While I was in Rangoon, we were shown a centre where they were bringing people together. I forget the name of it. NGOs and other people were given a certain amount of a budget. It looked to me that it might have been window dressing at the time, but some of the leadership was brought in there and you had a sense that they were being empowered.
Can you comment on that at all? I apologize, but I don't remember the name of the organization.
I see some quizzing going on, so I may have led you down the wrong path. I'll find out, Rebecca, and get back to you on that.
It was like an incubation centre and it was right in the centre of the city. Some activists were there who had been activists fighting for land and a variety of things. It sounded like they were at least being given a forum. A forum in that country was something that was very high risk in the past and we were worried whether or not they would actually survive. It was a government initiative, so I think it was window dressing we were seeing.
Do you have any comment?