On Oct. 29, Southeast Asian Human Rights Organizations from 10 countries met in Bangkok for a Regional Strategy Meeting. Among other things, they asked ASEAN parliamentarians to take up the cause of their colleagues in Burma, who were elected and yet denied the opportunity to serve the will of their constituents. They also urged the governments to recognize the elected members as legitimate representatives of Burma.
The Meeting also urged ASEAN to disqualify the SPDC from chairing the regional bloc meeting to be held in 2006, unless the ruling junta takes effective steps to achieve National Reconciliation, and introduce political and economic reforms. Also on Aug. 8, ASEAN's 37th anniversary, human rights activist groups including Forum Asia, Altsean Burma, Thai Action Committee for Democracy in Burma, and Burma Campaign UK, highlighted the growing concern over Burma's human rights abuse, including sexual violence, torture and recruitment of child soldiers, mismanagement of the economy, and extensive drug production sanctioned by the junta. The organizations called Burma a "millstone around ASEAN's neck" and launched a cammpaign to block the military-run state from chairing the regional grouping in 2006. Long-standing concern over human rights, the lack of political reforms and continued detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi have caused activists to exert pressure on ASEAN leaders to disqualify Rangoon from the leadership role. "It is increasingly obvious that the State Peace and Development Council, which rules Burma, has lied and broken the promises it made to ASEAN about economic and political reforms," the activist groups stated in a joint letter to regional heads of government.
Within the country the Burmese people are voicing their concerns and asking questions concerning the current political impasse. A majority within the country are convinced that the active participation of Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma's national reconciliation and democratization process is essential to create a peaceful Burma. There is also the growing feeling that only by releasing all political prisoners it would be possible to create an appropriate political environment for such a constitution-drafting convention.
The people are demanding a nationwide cease-fire, to ensure the convention functions as a full-fledged national forum. Pro-democracy citizens and parties point out that without the right to freedom of opinion, expression and press the National Convention cannot be a genuine forum. But the military regime continues to ignore these demands and claims Burma has emerged as a disciplined and flourishing democratic nation. However, the junta is going to build a military-controlled country through its seven-stage road map.
The people, by and large, are convinced that the convention sponsored by the junta does not represent the entire nation but a handful of pro-military supporters. The so-called national convention, which fails to represent elected representatives, is nothing more than a puppet show to hoodwink the international community into believing the junta's illusory democratization progress.
The Junta had earlier promised the ASEAN that Aung San Suu Kyi would be released before resuming the National Convention. But it has failed to keep its word as always. During the 10th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Vientiane, Laos (Nov. 29 - 30), junta Prime Minister Gen. Soe Win and Foreign Minister Nyan Win brushed aside questions on the release of detained democracy icon and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. In response to a question from media, Nyan Win said the culprit of the Dapeyin incident was no other than Aung San Suu Kyi for neglecting authorities' warnings. Burma will pursue the seven-point road map to democracy under its new leadership with the second session of the National Convention, excluding the opposition National League for Democracy, reconvening next February, said Foreign Minister Nyan Win.
The road map announced by ousted prime minister Gen Khin Nyunt was still in place, as it was a collective decision of the State Peace and Development Council, the junta's new foreign minister Nyan Win said in a briefing ahead of the 10th Asean summit which opened Nov. 29 in the capital of Laos. Ever since Aung San Suu Kyi was ambushed and detained on May 30, 2003, the Burmese Junta has faced criticism from the international community for its refusal to release the Nobel Laureate and its reluctance to restart reconciliation efforts.
The junta has stubbornly refused to negotiate participation of the NLD ignoring the international community's concerns. Consequently, Burma's second-largest pro-democracy party, the Shan National League for Democracy (SNLD), did not appear at the meeting because it was an undemocratic convention. The other eight ethnic political parties in the United Nationalities Alliance (UNA), which represents the Shan, Karen, Kachin, Chin, Arakan, Mon and Karenni ethnic parties, have also declared ahead of the resuming convention that they will not attend the forum without the NLD.
Without the participation of the NLD, the junta's national convention will lack genuine democratic principles and goal. Pro-democracy Burmese claim the National Convention has three major targets. The first is to whitewash the premeditated massacre at Depayin. Second is to do away with the result of the 1990 General Elections. Third is to persuade regional governments to support a sugar-coated military cabinet as a legitimate government of Burma, prior to the 2006 ASEAN Summit. A majority of people in the country strongly feel the junta's sponsored national convention, encouraged by ASEAN, is not a solution for Burma but a continued political and economic nightmare.Burmese people are puzzled with ASEAN's political pretence of supporting fake democratic reforms in Burma. On the surface, ASEAN leaders used to say that they urge the Burmese generals to walk along the democratic path. But, in their inner mind, they do encourage the junta to grab power as much as it can. The reason seems to be reluctance to honor a Democratic Burma. Public opinion in Burma expresses disappointment with ASEAN for encouraging the Burmese military regime to violate human rights as well as the laws of the civilized world. If ASEAN does not support democratic reforms in Burma, the military-ruled country will become a serious regional threat involving, drugs, human trafficking, prostitution, HIV/AIDS, refugee and mass migration etc. Before the junta embarrasses the region, ASEAN should review its policy on Burma and disqualify the junta from chairing the regional bloc in 2006, as it fails to implement National Reconciliation and political reforms. Promising political reforms, Burma joined ASEAN in 1997 but has been a lingering embarrassment and still a shame for ASEAN. It is amazing that a democratic organization willingly received a rogue military junta as a member. Activists however, slammed ASEAN for being soft on the issue. They warned that raising Myanmar (Burma) to the chairmanship of the organization meant an endorsement of military rule and could undermine ASEAN's credibility.
A group of regional lawmakers, over the weekend Nov. 29-30, issued a statement in Kuala Lumpur calling for suspending Burma's junta from ASEAN unless the military-run nation makes progress toward democratic reforms. They also acknowledge a political and humanitarian crisis in Myanmar (Burma) that is causing massive suffering and has a spill-over effect on regional neighbors, seriously affecting regional security through refugee and drug flows that require urgent action by all parties involved.
Zin Linn
Mizzima News
14 December 2004
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