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Today, we, the women of Free Burma Coalition – Philippines (FBC-Phils) join the world in the observance of the International Women's Day. We stand and march together with all the women around the world in their continuing struggle and commitment for freedom, justice and equality.
As millions of women today celebrate some gains of the struggle for women's liberation which began in the 19th century, we feel compelled to extend solidarity and support to other women and girls around the world, who until this very moment suffer discrimination, sexual violence and social injustices.
Such is true in the case of women in Burma. With the succeeding military regimes, the women of Burma since 1960s were deprived of their extreme desire for freedom and equality.
Despite being a signatory to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the military regime of State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) remains one of the world's most notorious women-rights violators. Large scale incidents of women's rights abuses in ethnic communities will contradict the statement of the military junta in its country-report to CEDAW that women in Burma enjoy their rights even before they are born.
Under the military rule, the women of Burma continue to experience sexual abuses, violent sexual assault and denial of their fundamental rights. The systematic use of “rape as a weapon of war” in its so-called anti-insurgency campaign is proof that the SPDC is unable and unwilling to curve all forms of violence against women in Burma.
However, instead of addressing the international community's demand to halt human rights abuses, and improve its rights record, the military regime chose to ignore legitimate calls for reforms.
EVIDENCES OF TERROR
* Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's democracy icon has been in detention for 14 of the last 20 years, with other hundreds of women political prisoners still languishing in various detention centers in Burma. Recently four women activists were sent to prison accused of causing public unrest during a visit of the UN Special Envoy on Human Rights. The women were ordered to serve two-year imprisonment with hard labor.
* A 22-year old woman was gang raped while pregnant. Shortly after a Burma Army soldier killed her father in January 2008. This report is just one of the documented incidences of rape in 2003 in Shan State but weak prosecution discourages women from pursuing a case.
* On February 8, 2010, about 3,600 factory workers, mostly women, protested against low wages and the substandard working conditions. The military dictatorship has a record of violent crack- downs against any form of protest or gatherings over 5 people. Trade unions are banned. Workers in Burma are denied their basic rights of assembly and collective bargaining.
* There are reportedly 800,000 people including women who are being subjected to forced labour. Despite an existing ILO resolution on Burma, the junta is continuously practicing this criminal labor practice.
* The women of Burma are also exposed to high risk of acquiring HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted disease. A cross-broder problem exposed in 2006 placing Burma as threat to regional peace and security.
Calls for End to Impunity of Burma's Military Regime
We also welcome the findings and recommendations developed during the International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women of Burma held last week in New York City. The quasi-legal event featured compelling testimony – the first ever – of 12 women from Burma who have suffered rape, torture, and other crimes at the hands of the military junta. The event highlighted the glaring human rights crimes, including the systematic use of rape as a weapon of war, and called for policymakers to demand a last resort: urging the UN Security Council (UNSC) to refer the case of Burma to the International Criminal Court.
The case of the women of Burma is a concrete evidence that women caught in conflict situations are vulnerable to sexual attacks and other forms of human rights abuses. It happened in the case of Cambodia before, in the case of Rwanda and the continuing violation of women rights in Mindanao. This “pattern of impunity” that puts women as “casualties of wars and conflict” must be stopped.
The women of FBC-Philippines stand in solidarity with all our sisters in Burma, Asia Pacific and the rest of the world in their quest for political, labor, social and economic emancipation. We believe that unless the women of Burma are free, the entire struggle for women's liberation would remain incomplete.
In the spirit of solidarity, we appeal to the international community, governments, women's groups, civil society organizations and the media to act with firm resolve and support the following demands:
1. End of militarism in Burma and all of the Asia-Pacific
2. Unconditional release of all women political prisoners in Burma including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
3. For the UNSC to continuously investigate SPDC on the systematic use of “rape”as a weapon of war and crimes against humanity by setting up a Commission of Inquiry (CoI)
4. Support to the UNSC Resolution 1820 and 1325 to mandate criminal accountability for perpetrators of gender crimes in conflict situation; hold the military regime of Burma accountable and bring justice for the women of Burma.
5. For the International Labor Organization (ILO) to expand its mandate in Burma and probe on all forms of exploitation including forced labor.
In solidarity,
Free Burma Coalition (FBC) – Philippines
Women's Committee
Alliance of Progressive Labor – Women (APL), Bagong Kamalayan Collective Inc. (BKCI), Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino – Women (BMP- Solidarity of Philippine Workers), Pagkakaisa ng mga Kababaihan para sa Kalayaan (KAISAKA – Unity of Women for Freedom), Partido ng Manggagawa – Women (PM- Workers' Party), Samahan ng Demokratikong Kabataan – Women (SDK-Union of Democratic Youth) Coalition Against Trafficking of Women in Asia Pacific (CATW-AP) and the Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID). For inquiries, kindly refer to:
Egoy N. Bans, Free Burma Coalition – Philippines (FBC-Phils) Secretariat
Yuen Abana, Convenor, FBC-Phils Women's Committee
c/o Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID)
+632 4352900; +632 9110205; +63920 9132472
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