Twyford PhilHon PHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatū): Over the last week and a half New Zealanders of Myanmar descent have been asking why this Government has extended an invitation to representatives of one of the world's most reviled regimes—the military junta that run Myanmar today—and why the Government has invited them to come to this country to take part in an intergovernmental meeting. The communities of mostly former refugees and their families from one end of this country to the other who have made a new life in New Zealand after fleeing years of civil war in Myanmar and military oppression have written to the Rt Hon Winston Peters the Minister of Foreign Affairs asking him to refuse the visa for representatives of this regime to come to New Zealand. They're due to take part in an ASEAN dialogue meeting on 18 and 19 April here in Wellington and I want to give a shout out to the people who have been campaigning. They have organised public protests in Nelson in Auckland and yesterday out in the front of Parliament and in Dunedin. I don't know why after three years of New Zealand's standing firm against the butchers of Myanmar and refusing to give them legitimacy and refusing to recognise them suddenly this Government thinks it's a good idea to invite them to come to New Zealand to take part in this meeting. But I want to give you three reasons why it's a really bad idea. This regime is waging a war against its own people. It has killed more than 4800 civilians. It carries out indiscriminate air strikes against villagers and internally displaced persons' camps within that country. It stole democracy at the barrel of a gun that arrested the president and Aung San Suu Kyi dozens of legislators and thousands of democracy activists trade unionists and journalists. Two and a half million people are displaced in the country at the moment because of this regime. It is one of the world's worst military regimes and we should not be giving it the legitimacy that it desperately craves.The second reason is that New Zealand for a long time has been a country that has a reputation for speaking out on matters of principle internationally. The people in our regions—in the Pacific and in Asia—look to New Zealand to be a voice for democracy for peace and for human rights and this decision to invite the butchers of Myanmar to come to our country after three years of denying them that opportunity flies in the face of New Zealand's policy of consistently denouncing the military regime in Myanmar. The third reason is that the democratic resistance in Myanmar three years since the military coup is on a roll at the moment. The National Unity Government the Government in exile and the ethnic resistance organisations that are such a significant part of the resistance have had a string of military successes and 43 percent of the territory of Myanmar is controlled by the democratic opposition not by the military regime. The level of political organisation of people standing up for human rights and democracy and demanding a democratic federal union in that country to do away with the military dictatorship—that movement is stronger than ever before. The military on the other hand is looking increasingly shaky. They recently introduced conscription. Young people between the ages of 18 and 35 are now being press-ganged into military service because the military is so desperate. They've had thousands of soldiers defect from the war because they don't want to fight on the side of this brutal and illegal regime. Now is the very time that we should be isolating that regime not inviting them to New Zealand to take part in talks.I want to finish by quoting the former Prime Minister of New Zealand Helen Clark who said Acceptance of the Myanmar junta representatives when the country's ruling junta has been internationally condemned for crimes against humanity and its ruthless war against its own people and is under severe pressure from the pro-democratic forces in the country would seriously damage the international reputation of New Zealand. For New Zealand to grant a visa to a Myanmar junta representative because ASEAN has issued an invitation is an abdication of our national sovereignty."I say to the Minister of Foreign Affairs the Rt Hon Winston Peters to do the right thing. Refuse the visas and keep the butchers of Myanmar out of our country."