US Top Diplomat Slams Burma over Human Rights Record

The US scolded Burma for its poor human rights record Friday, and expressed concern that the exodus of hundreds of thousands of people from the Southeast Asian nation has created a region-wide refugee crisis.

"We've raised concerns, first of all, about Myanmar's [Burma’s] human rights record," US Assistant State Secretary Christopher Hill said during a meeting of senior officials from the 26-country Asean Regional Forum, which includes Washington and Burma.

"We will also be raising our concern that it's representing a kind of regional problem as well because Myanmar has created a huge flow of refugees," he said. "This is quite a burden to the region."

Decades of fighting between Burma’s military regime and ethnic minorities have sparked massive internal displacement as well as an influx of refugees to neighboring Thailand.

An estimated 700,000 refugees have flooded out of Burma, Hill said.

He did not specifically address the issue of Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's continued house arrest during his brief remarks to the media.

The US State Department o­n Wednesday again called o­n Burma’s ruling junta to release Suu Kyi, who has spent more than 11 of the last 17 years either in prison or under house arrest. Her current sentence expires Sunday.

As Hill spoke at Manila's Shangri-la Hotel, about 20 protesters holding coffee mugs bearing Suu Kyi's picture gathered outside the hotel to condemn the pro-democracy leader's continued detention.

Egoy Bans, spokesman of the Free Burma Coalition, said they hoped the protest would encourage the forum to press for the release of Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.

"They are delaying the move to pressure the Burmese junta," Bans told The Associated Press. "Burma should be made to adhere to the democratic ideals of Asean."

Some of Burma’s fellow members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations appealed to the Burmese government o­n Tuesday, urging that Suu Kyi be released.

Suu Kyi's troubles began after her National League for Democracy won elections in 1990 and was not allowed to replace the junta.

Aung San Suu Kyi‘s Detention Extended Again

Burma’s brutal military dictatorship today defied calls from the UN, USA, EU and ASEAN to release Aung San Suu Kyi, instead extending her detention under house arrest. Her latest period of detention was due to expire on May 27th. As of today Aung San Suu Kyi has spent a total of 11 years and 213 days in detention.

Last week, 59 world political leaders including former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and former US President Bill Clinton, wrote to Than Shwe, the dictator of Burma, calling for Aung San Suu Kyi’s release.

“The regime is confident it can defy the international community without any negative consequences,” said Mark Farmaner, Acting Director of the Burma Campaign UK. “They are having a good year. A Security Council resolution was vetoed, the EU rolled over its Common Position on Burma without taking any stronger measures, the Human Rights Council failed to act, and the ILO deferred a decision on a referral to the International Court of Justice. The international community is all huff and no puff, so it is ignored.”

The Burma Campaign UK is calling for concerted political and economic pressure to be placed on the regime. To date the international community has been divided on how to approach Burma, as well as failing to prioritise the issue. As a consequence there has been no effective strategy and no consistent message. However, since moves began in 2005 to put Burma on the agenda on the Security Council, there has been a greater prioritisation, and a growing consensus on the need for change. ASEAN has gone from a position of defending the regime to one of public criticism, and even China and Russia, which vetoed the draft Security Council resolution on Burma, have said that there needs to be change in the country.

The UN has been dithering again for the past few months, but has finally reappointed Ibrahim Gambari as envoy to the country. No date has been set for him to visit the country, despite an invitation from the regime.

In recent months the regime, apparently emboldened, has stepped up arrests of democracy activists.
“An important first step would be for the UN envoy to visit Burma in the next few weeks and report back to the Security Council,” said Mark Farmaner. “The UN must start engaging in serious diplomatic initiatives, and the regime given a message that it cannot act with impunity.”

Reference: Burma Campaign UK

Who is Daw Aung San Suu Kyi?

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Aung San Suu Kyi

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A symbol of ‘Hope and Defiance’
Aung San Suu Kyi is one of the world’s most renowned leaders, championing the rights of individuals, freedom and democracy in the face of a brutal dictatorship in Burma. With her steely grace and charisma, she is a symbol of hope, defiance and moral strength for the 55 million people of Burma. The Burmese people call her “mother”, indicative of the important and endearing role that she plays in her country.

It has been 22 years since she was thrown into the midst of the country’s biggest political upheaval. To this day, she remains the legitimate elected leader of the Burmese people, but due to her political vision and popularity among the Burmese public, she has spent over 14 of the last 20 years under house arrest.

Born on June 19th 1945 in Burma, she is the daughter of the country’s independence hero, General Aung San. She was only two years old at the time of her father’s assassination. As her mother was the urmese ambassador to India and Nepal, Suu Kyi was always on the move, and she received her education in Burma, India, and the United Kingdom.

“A strong sense of duty toward my people and my country, I was always aware of that”
In 1988, while living in London, she returned to Burma to attend to her ailing mother, and was thrust into the forefront of the country’s nationwide uprising, often referred to as the 8888 Uprising. She joined the newly-formed opposition political party, National League for Democracy and became the General Secretary of the party. Suu Kyi made several public appearances, gave speeches and campaigned far and wide calling for freedom and democracy while exposing the Burmese military regime for its lack of legitimacy and competence.
On August 26th 1988 at the famous Shwedagon Pagoda in central Yangon, during her first and best-known speech, she told the cheering crowd of half a million people: “The present crisis is the concern of the entire nation. I could not, as my father’s daughter, remain indifferent to all that was going on. This national crisis could, in fact, be called the second struggle for independence.” With that speech, she won the hearts and minds of the Burmese people.

As her popularity soared, the military regime became nervous over the frailty of its own power and responded with utmost brutal force. The soldier shot at thousands of peaceful protesters, killing up to 5,000 civilians and injuring thousands of students, women, children and elders. Thousands more were arrested, tortured and given lengthy prison sentences. Many of them remain behind bars as political prisoners to this day. Aung San Suu Kyi, too, was immediately put under house arrest.
“Victory denied”
Following the months of carnage and brutal crackdown, in an attempt to redeem whatever was left of their power and legitimacy, the military government called for general elections in 1990. Although the military junta tried to keep Suu Kyi isolated from the Burmese people, her absence only made the hearts of the people grow fonder of her and her vision for a free and democratic Burma. Despite being under house arrest, her political party, NLD, won a landslide victory in the elections with a staggering 82% of seats in the parliament. The regime never recognized the results of the election and continues to silent and persecute voices of dissent in the country.

“My choice has already been made. It’s my country first”
In a letter to her late husband, Michael Aris, that she wrote before their marriage in 1972, she said, “I only ask one thing, that should my people need me, you would help me to do my duty by them.” For Suu Kyi, her country always comes first, even at the expense of being separated from loved ones. Since becoming the figurehead of the democratic movement in Burma, Suu Kyi has been denied the ability to see her family, which resides in England.

When Michael Aris was dying from prostate cancer and asked to see his wife one last time, the military junta denied him the opportunity. Instead, they encouraged Suu Kyi to leave Burma to see her dying husband. Knowing that once she stepped out of the country, she would not be allowed to return, Aung San Suu Kyi decided to stay in Yangon. The military regime’s cruelty went as far as cutting off phone lines and all forms of communications between her and her husband. Michael Aris died on March 27th 1999, without ever seeing his wife again. The last time she saw her two children, Alexander and Kim, was back in 2000. Since then, she has been locked away at her lakeside residence, barred from communicating with the outside world and her family.

Although San Suu Kyi has chosen the path of hardship, loss, and sacrifice, she once said in an interview,”I don’t look upon it as a sacrifice. It’s a choice. If you choose to do something, then you shouldn’t say it’s a sacrifice because nobody forced you to do it.”

“Years of arrest”
Aung San Suu Kyi has been in and out of arrest ever since 1988. She has spent over 14 out of 20 years under house arrest at her lakeside home-cum-prison, where her family once lived. She was detained from 1989 to 1995 and from 2000-2002.
In May 2003,  her envoy was brutally attacked by government-backed thugs, in an incident referred to as Depayin Massacre (name derived from where the incident took place). Up to 100 of her supporters were believed to have been beaten to death by the regime’s cronies. Even the car in which Suu Kyi was riding came under attack, but she escaped the ambush unscathed and was immediately arrested by the junta. To illustrate the rule of law does not exist under the military regime, instead of arresting the thugs who attacked her envoy, the government arrested her supporters and witnesses at the scene. She has been under house arrest from May 2003 to this day.

A few weeks before her detention terms came to an end, in May 2009 a bizarre incident occurred involving an unknown American named John Yettaw who swam to her lakeside home and sought refuge there for a couple of days. The military regime accused her of breaching the terms of her house detention and brought her to court. Many people inside and outside of Burma speculated that it was a politically motivated attempt by the military government to extend her detention terms in order to prevent her from participating in the 2010 elections. The international community severely condemned the trumped-up charges and the circumstances of the court proceedings. The trial spanned over three months and in August 2009, a verdict was made, sentencing her to 18 more months under house arrest.

“International Recognition and Rewards”
Aung San Suu Kyi has won numerous international awards. In 1991, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for being “one of the extraordinary examples of civil courage in Asia in recent decades.” In 2008, the US Senate honored her with the Congressional Medal of Honour award, the highest civilian award in the continental US. Her other awards include Sakharov Prize from the European Parliament, the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom, and Jawaharlal Nehru Award from India.

Reference and Credit: US Campaign for Burma 

People, Politics, Poverty of Burma

Health

Burma’s health system is ranked second worst in the world, next to Sierra Leone. The government spends 30-50% of its budget on the military, yet only 2.2% is spent on health. An estimated 30% of children under age 5 are moderately to severely underweight due to food insecurity, lowering their immune systems and making them susceptible to even more health problems. About 10% of children die before they reach age five, usually from diarrheal disease. Burma has a high infant mortality rate of 75 per 1000 live births. As many as one in 12 women die from pregnancy and related complications. There is a 1.3% HIV/AIDS prevalence rate, which is the second highest in all of Southeast Asia only after Thailand. An estimated 40% of people have drug-resistant or multi-drug resistant tuberculosis and over 700,000 have malaria.

Health indicators for Burma are among the worst in the region, especially in Eastern Burma. The indicators are on par with other nations experiencing humanitarian disasters, including Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cambodia at the end of the Khmer Rouge, and Darfur, Sudan. As though the government’s minimal investment in healthcare wasn’t bad enough, the SPDC has also forced Doctors Without Borders as well as The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria to pull out of the country with its extreme travel restrictions. Unfortunately, the health situation will only worsen without the government’s commitment to the wellbeing of the people of Burma.
Dr Cynthia Maung’s Mae Tao Clinic
Gathering Storm 2007: Infectious Disease and Human Rights in Burma

Education

Burma used to be one of the most literate nations in the region, but as of 2002, the literacy rate was 85.3%, compared with 92.6% in Thailand. The military dictatorship is responsible for Burma’s failed education system. Other low-income Asian nations spend around three percent of GDP on education, but SPDC directs most of the country’s income to the military and spends only 0.3% of its GDP on education.

In 2004, only 85.1% of Burmese children are enrolled in primary school, down from 97.8% in 1991. What’s worse is that only 34% are enrolled in secondary schools. When high schools are built, parents are expected to help finance it as well as work for the school. Because most parents cannot afford these costs, along with the poor education and the unsafe environments of villages, many Burmese students trek through the jungle to the refugee camps on the Thai border for education.

Broken Economy

Burma’s economy was once among the developing world’s richest it was called the Rice Bowl of Asia and showed more promise than its neighbors, now called the Asian Tigers. After decades of mismanagement and repression, however, Burma’s economy is in shambles. It is estimated that 90 percent of the population lives at or below the poverty line, and that Burma has the lowest GDP per capita in all of Southeast Asia. Burma’s economy is rated as among the least free in the world by the Heritage Foundation only four countries (Zimbabwe, Libya, Cuba, and North Korea) ranked lower this year.

The military controls all major sectors of the economy such as mining, logging, oil, transport, manufacturing, apparel, and power. It controls the export of many key commodities and also must approve all foreign investment. Corruption is widespread, with the military protecting crony companies and state-owned businesses. With all the income the military government generates, very little of its budget is actually spent on health and education 50 percent is spent on the military, with only three percent going to education and eight percent to health. Rampant inflation (prices of commodities increased over 50% in 2003, and 20% in 2006) makes the economic impact more intense for those at the bottom end of Burma’s huge wealth gap. While the ruling military elite live in luxury, the vast majority of Burmese live in some of the worst abject poverty, unsure of whether they will be able to feed their families tomorrow or the day after.

Political Prisoners

Before the Saffron Revolution there were over 1100 political prisoners in Burma. Today there are hundreds more. Torture, rape, and other gross acts that violate the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights are used towards these prisoners who are being punished for nothing more than using their voices.

There are 36 prisons in Burma, and of them, 20 detain political prisoners. The two that are most notorious for their demoralizing tactics are Myingyan Prison and Insein Prison. The prisoners there have strict regimens and if they do not follow orders precisely, they are thoroughly beaten. Various types of torment, from being deprived of food, to being forced to crawl upon sharp pieces of brick, are used when prisoners rightfully complain to prison authorities during inspections.
While in most nations these innocent prisoners would be viewed as simply exercising their rights to assemble and express their opinions, the SPDC justifies their brutal conduct by charging the blameless with causing unrest. They are forced to endure inhumane treatment merely for acts such as attending a pro-democracy rally or writing a poem about liberty.

Assistance Association for Political Prisoners of Burma (AAPP)
The Darkness We See: Report on Torture in Burma’s Prisons

The Situation of Women

Burmese women face oppression in many forms, and basic health indicators suggest that the living conditions and status of women in Burma are among the lowest in Asia (if not the absolute lowest). Burma’s nation-wide maternal mortality rate which measures deaths related to childbirth is estimated at 230 deaths per 100,000 live births, the highest in the region. The maternal mortality rate in Burma’s ethnic and conflict areas is even higher: at 1,200 deaths per 100,000 live births, this rate is among the highest in the world and compares most to the world’s humanitarian disasters. Likewise, mortality rates in these conflict zones for children under five years old are among the worst in the world comparable to Sierra Leone and Angola. Although the military dictatorship has signed on to international law guaranteeing the rights of women, they are still among the worst abusers of women’s rights in the world. Military rape is systematically used in Burma as a weapon of the military regime’s cleansing of ethnic areas. These rapes are often gang rapes, and are accompanied by torture, murder, mutilation and display of bodies to target communities. Women and girls have many fewer educational and job opportunities than men in Burma: less than one third of girls who enroll in primary school actually complete it, and many girls are trafïcked into exploitative sex work in various nations, especially Thailand.
Women’s League of Burma
Courage to Resist
License to Rape

Reference: US Campaign for Burma

Where/What is Burma?

Burma is the second largest country in Southeast Asia with an area of 676,500 square kilometers. It is located to the east of India and Bangladesh, to the southwest of the People's Republic of China and to the west of Laos and Thailand. The coastline extends from Bangladesh to Thailand along the Bay of Bengal. The country has a population of nearly 50 million. Burma was once the richest country in Asia and is now considered one of the poorest.

Burma was colonized by Britain from the early nineteenth century and was accorded a limited form of self-government in the late 1930s, when it was separated from the administration of India against a background of nationalist challenge. It was occupied by the Japanese during the Worl War II with the support of Burmese nationalists, who in 1943 were accorded a nominal independence. 

Burma attained full independence in January 4, 1948 after the British Labour Party administration revised its gradualist timetable in light of the demonstrable support enjoyed by the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League (AFPFL), the militant nationalist movement led by Aung San.

Burma began independence as a parliamentary democracy in inauspicious circumstances. Nationalist leader Aung San came to an agreement in January 1947 with the British government for the transfer of sovereignty a year later. However, on July 19, 1947, he was assassinated, along with six members of his cabinet, in a plot mounted by a political rival. Independence went ahead on January 4, 1948 with U Nu as prime minister.

After independence, Burma was subject to violent internal upheaval as the government in Rangoon was confronted with two Communist and a number of ethnic-minority insurgencies, challenging both the identity and the constitutional arrangements of the new state. Because of his roots in the nationalist movement, against both the British and Japanese, General Ne Win displayed a sense of political entitlement which came to affect the future of the country. Violent challenge to the state and its integrity was succeeded by ferocious factional fighting within the ruling political party. 

It was to repair this situation that in July 1958, the prime minister, U Nu, invited General Ne Win to form a caretaker government and to prepare the country for fresh elections. Power was returned to civilian government in March 1960. With the electoral success of his faction of the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League, U Nu resumed office as Prime Minister. On March 2, 1962, however, Ne Win mounted a coup in response to concessions by the government to the insurgent ethnic minorities and set up a Revolutionary Council to run the country. 

Under military rule, the country became committed to an ersatz ideology called the Burmese Way to Socialism, which was a potted version of Marxist and Buddhist formulae. In July 1962, the Revolutionary Council established the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) with the mission to realize the Burmese Way to Socialism. All other parties were abolished, while the BSPP served as the political arm of the army. In 1974, a new constitution was promulgated, the BSPP was opened up to a mass membership and the name of the state was changed to the Socialist Republic Union of Burma, with Ne Win in the office of president. He stepped down in November 1981 but remained in control as chairman of the BSPP. 

Burma erupted in political turmoil when the government adopted desperate measures to cope with a deteriorating economy. Demonetization of larger currency notes in circulation in September 1987 provoked student unrest which exploded in demonstrations and violence in March 1988. This challenge was matched by ruthless military repression, which came to a head in August and September. 

In the interim, Ne Win resigned as chairman of the BSPP in July but failed to stem the popular uprising, under the leadership of Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of national hero Aung San, who had returned to Burma coincidentally to nurse her ailing mother.

On September 18, 1988 the army chief of staff, General Saw Maung, assumed power on behalf of the military in an incumbency coup marking the culmination of an awesome bloodletting. They named themselves the State Law and Restoration Council (SLORC). On November 15, 1997 they changed to new name, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).

Political parties were allowed to register during 1989. Although more than two hundred emerged, only a handful of any significance were formed, above all, the National League for Democracy (NLD) led by Aung San Suu Kyi. She was placed under house arrest in July 1989 for six years. Nonetheless, the National League for Democracy won an overwhelming electoral victory at the polls in May 1990 over the National Unity Party, which was the political reincarnation of the BSPP. But SPDC refused to hand over of state power. In September 2000 Aung San Suu Kyi was arrested again, and then briefly released in 2002.

Reference: CIA Factbook