2009 Most Wanted List: Burma

The repressive policies of Burma's brutal military junta earned the country its place on the 2009 Most Wanted List of governments responsible for crimes against humanity. The regime has successfully maintained its firm control on Burmese society despite events over the past two years that many predicted might lead to a weakening of the junta, such as the violent crackdown on protests in 2007 and the severe limiting of humanitarian access to victims of Cyclone Nargis in 2008.

A report commissioned by the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School earlier this year found that, despite extensive documentation of widespread and systematic violations of basic human rights by the junta, the UN Security Council has yet to give the situation in Burma, also known as Myanmar, more than scant attention -- given Burma's close ties to China, neglect by the Security Council is not surprising, though certainly disappointing.

Ethnic minorities in the east of the country bear the brunt of the government's brutality. According to a consortium of humanitarian aid groups, over 500,000 were forcibly displaced this year alone due to violence perpetrated by the military. According to the Genocide Intervention Network, which added Burma to its Areas of Concern in 2008, the government is overwhelmingly responsible for the violence in Eastern Burma, with an ongoing military strategy that intentionally targets civilians as a counterinsurgency tactic. GI-Net also reports that over 3,200 villages were destroyed or abandoned because of government operations between 1996  - 2007 -- roughly on par with the number of villages destroyed in Darfur by the Sudanese government's scorched earth campaign.

Opportunities for Change?

Burma is also shaping up to be another test case for President Obama's policy of engaging with abusive governments, and if his approach is successful, it may offer an opportunity to sidestep UNSC reluctance and push for change via bilateral relations. The U.S. has joined international calls for the release of Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for 14 of the last 20 years, head of national elections scheduled for 2010. During his recent trip to Asia, for instance, Obama not only broke ranks with previous U.S. presidents by attending a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) that included a representative from the military regime, but directly raised the issue of the detained opposition politician with General Thein Sein. Since then, the regime has shown some signs of acquiescing.

Next year's elections thus offer a critical opportunity to push for democratic opening in the military dictatorship, but genuine reform, an end to ongoing abuses, and accountability for decades of human rights violations are likely to be out of reach as long as the current leaders remain in power. Countering the influence of China will be a particular challenge for Obama's more conciliatory approach to human rights in foreign affairs, if it is even an active item on the president's agenda.

[Photo by Jan van Raay.]