NEWSBURMA

Background:

Tomorrow, December 1st, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be the first American Secretary of State to visit the Southeast Asian nation of Burma in 50 years. Her visit is a way for the United States to assess the sincerity of the Burmese military regime’s commitment to human rights and democracy -- including democratic elections and the release of Nobel Peace Laureate and pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi.

However, human rights activists want to be sure that Secretary Clinton will properly take advantage of this incredible opportunity and address the human rights violations that Burma is so widely known for.  Specifically, a Buddhist monk and Burmese political refugee named U Pyinya Zawta launched a campaign on Change.org calling on Secretary Clinton to push publicly for the unconditional release of all of Burma's political prisoners, including the venerable U Gambira, insist on an end to hostilities in Burma, and insist on changes to the 2008 flawed constitution.

This past Thursday I headed down to Seattle Center to check out the Seattle Red Cross event, “Women in War: Challenges and Consequences.” This event was a part of their current photojournalism series called “Our World at War.”

Speaking that evening were three women who have all lived through the horrors of violent conflict; their experiences ranging from the atrocities in the Congo, the military junta in Burma, and Cambodia under the reign of Pol Pot. While these three women brought to the table very different stories of struggle and survival, all surprisingly agreed upon a singular message.

Pwint Htun of Burma said it best in quoting Aung San Suu Kyi: “Please use your liberty to promote ours.”

Here in the United States we often take for granted the liberty we enjoy. While there are of course times in which our liberties are infringed upon, in the grand scheme of things we are the beneficiaries of a unique level of freedom and liberty. As these three women spoke on Thursday, the vast discrepancy between the liberty we experience and that which is desired by those living in conflict zones became glaringly apparent. Their charge to us in the audience was to take advantage of the liberty we enjoy in our efforts to fight for human rights worldwide, and to use our liberty to fight for theirs.

Earlier this month in New Orleans, at Amnesty International’s All Rights for All People conference, the ongoing imprisonment of Aung San Suu Kyi weighed heavy on the agenda.

This year, after all, marks two big anniversaries for Burma. It marks 20 years since Suu Kyi was voted Prime Minister in the last elections held. Rather than hand over power, the military junta nullified the results, rewrote the Constitution, and put Suu Kyi under house arrest, where one Nobel Peace Prize and two decades later, she remains.

This April also marked the military’s 65th birthday — no small feat for a military that’s bit by bit become synonymous with the government itself. To celebrate, the Army marched past lavish, newly constructed buildings in the country’s capital, where a Senior General stopped to salute a hand-picked crowd, and promised the coming elections would be free and fair.

At the celebration, the military made no bones about saying, "God is good. We have a lot to be grateful for." Their “disciplined democracy” resembles a well-oiled machine these days. Even with elections planned for a yet-to-be-named date later this year, it’s unlikely much will change. There’s little threat to the junta’s monopoly on political, economic, and military power, or its Orwellian control over Burma’s 58 million citizens.

(Many refer to the country as Myanmar, the name put forth by its current rul

How can a cyclone that happened nearly two years ago still be causing problems for people? In the case of Burma, it's pretty simple: the authoritarian government has little to no interest in helping many of the families and victims who were impacted by the May 2008 storm known as Cyclone Nargis.

That's the conclusion reached by Human Rights Watch (HRW), in a detailed new report looking at how the Burmese military regime has largely prevented humanitarian aid from reaching many of the victims of Cyclone Nargis.

The storm was the worst natural disaster ever to hit Burma, killing about 140,000 almost instantly. In the time since the storm, according to HRW, government authorities have cracked down on the activities of Burmese humanitarian aid workers, threatening their rights to freedom of expression and movement. The result? Aid doesn't reach its needed recipients. And the needed recipients languish under intense conditions.

What do you give a military junta that controls a country like a police state, brutally cracks down on free speech, and has marked an ethnic group within its borders for extinction? Well, if you're three of the world's biggest energy companies, and the country is Burma, you give them hundreds upon hundreds of millions of dollars.

Say hello to Chevron, Total, and PTTEP (more commonly known as the Petroleum Authority of Thailand Exploration and Production), three energy companies that annually give boatloads of money to Burma's repressive junta. Why do these companies continue to ship briefcases full of cash to one of the world's worst violators of human rights?

Gas, of course. Lots and lots of gas. Since at least 1992, the companies have been joined at the hip with the Burmese junta, working to construct what's known as the Yadana gas pipeline. It transports gas from Burma to Thailand. It's also been a source of some of the grossest corporate human rights violations in the past two decades, including forced labor, rape, torture, land confiscation, and murder. Why? Because these companies contract with Burma's military to provide "security" around the mine.

Some security, eh?

Now, scores of organizations and human rights activists are calling on Total, Chevron and PTTEP to disclose just how much revenue they're sending to Burma's junta. After all, if these companies are so eager to tap into the gas inside Burma, shouldn't they be willing to put their mouths where their money is going?

Few places are as bad for children as Burma. An estimated 20% of the national army are children as young as twelve — the highest number of child soldiers used by any army in the world — and those born to marginalized ethnic minority groups face a life of poverty, violence, and displacement.

The military is well-known for not only its own forced recruitment campaigns, but for buying children from "brokers" to fill their ranks. Children are, after all, cheap and obedient, far more likely to do what they're told, far less likely to make demands about compensation and quality of life. For all armed groups that use child soldiers, children are seen as far more expendable when sent off into battle — losing a child is not, for instance, as big of a deal as losing an adult soldier in whom you've invested time and money in training. It's an unfortunate calculation, to say the least, but it's far more common than you might think.

Here’s how you know when diplomats –- people who are tasked to think twice before saying nothing –- are getting serious: when you no longer have to read between the lines. Last week senior UN diplomats started to take the gloves off, as diplomacy goes, in their effort to get the Burma junta to take democratic reform and human rights seriously. It’s about time.

The UK Representative to the UN, Mark Lyall Green, led the way last week — stating in no uncertain terms that Britain would support referring Burma to the International Criminal Court. The human rights community has been advocating for more UN action for more than two years (see here, here, here, here, and here). And it is starting to happen. It was only last month that a sitting U.N. human rights official, the Special Rapporteur for human rights in Burma no less, weighed in as well, saying the UN should consider investigating international crimes in Burma. When Green was asked for the UK’s views about referring Burma to the ICC, he stated that the UK “of course would support such a reference.” Don’t let the flippant tone fool you: threatening ICC referral is a big deal.

An ICC referral would require the support or acquiescence of all permanent Security Council members, and the others won’t be easy to come by. Least of all China. But Green put the Burma leadership on notice that the counting has begun.

The next day, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also shared his views on Burma. Asked about the progress toward demonstrating that this summer’s election will be anything remotely like legitimate, Ban said it was “disappointing,” “frustrating and disappointing,” oh, and did I mention “frustrating,” that Burma has done nothing to assure “that people of Myanmar can enjoy genuine freedom and genuine democracy.” Now, granted, this fit of pique doesn’t sound like saber-rattling. But you really don’t hear this sort of talk very often from the UNSG. When the Secretary General can’t stand you, you just don’t have many friends left.

Will Rogers quipped that “diplomacy is the art of saying ‘nice doggie’ until you can find a rock.” The authorities in Burma must have noticed that their friends aren’t playing as nice as they used to.

Photo credit: Franz Patzing

Brave women from Burma testified in New York City last Tuesday about years of abuse by the Burmese military regime. The Nobel Women's Initiative and the Women's League of Burma convened a “people’s tribunal” to break the silence surrounding the military junta’s reign of fear and oppression. It is an indictment of the judicial system in Burma that they had to seek justice in New York -- over 8,000 miles from Rangoon.

Certainly no court will hear them out in Burma, let alone hold the perpetrators to account. Instead, a distinguished panel of judges, including Nobel Peace Laureates Shirin Ebadi and Jody Williams, Dr. Heisoo Shin from the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and UN Special Rapporteur Vitit Muntarbhorn, heard the women’s horrific accounts.

Among the most outrageous were the testimonials of widespread sexual violence by the Burmese military. Unfortunately, this is nothing new. The regime has repeatedly shrugged off offers from the UN Special Rapporteur on Burma to carry out an independent assessment of allegations of sexual violence.

The people’s tribunal, however, lacked the capacity to investigate the full scale of the violence, even though the survivors represent thousands of untold stories across Burma. The tribunal concluded the proceedings by calling on the international community to stop ignoring the human emergency in Burma. The UN should take note of the tribunal and convene its own independent Commission of Inquiry into the possible crimes in that country.

Photo credit: worak

Anything’s possible, even fair elections in Burma. But let’s not kid ourselves.

Burma’s leader, Than Shwe, who claims to be guiding his country along a “Roadmap to Democracy,” has promised elections “soon.” A peak over the General’s shoulder should reveal that the regime is charting a path to continued oppression and military control. Unfortunately, some do not see it coming.

In an op-ed published in the International Herald Tribune last week, Stanley Weiss argued that the elections, likely to be held in October, may represent a “step forward” for the country, a “light at the end of the Irrawaddy.” In doing so, he cited a military official who spoke (vaguely) about preparing the way for the emergence of a “new generation” of political leaders. The regime’s assurances need to be taken with a giant grain of salt.

Burma's less-than-inspiring human rights record has received overdue attention lately, as the international community tries to push the country's military junta toward even a smidgen of democratic opening. Every tiny sign of progress is countered by another human rights violation, and violence against ethnic minorities near the border with Thailand continues unabated.

This week, this same pattern is repeating itself despite a high-profile visit from a UN human rights envoy. And while the military junta's violent repression of its opponents -- which a recent Amnesty International report said is going "from bad to worse" ahead of national elections later this year -- is the subject of increased international attention, the ongoing violence against ethnic Karens remains relatively unaddressed. At least 2,000 more civilians have been displaced in recent weeks by military attacks on Karen villages.

According to Benedict Rogers of Christian Solidary Worldwide, “These latest attacks serve as clear evidence of a brutal plan of ethnic cleansing against the minorities, instigated by Burma’s military regime." Meanwhile, Thailand is eager to get rid of the 140,000 refugees living in camps along the border, threatening forced repatriation despite continued government led-violence and destruction of villages in Burma.