For the last three to five years, we have seen the international community’s unrelenting advocacy and campaign work aimed in attaining genuine political changes inside Burma. The campaign to block Burma from chairing the ASEAN this year was a major success. Various non-government organizations and people’s organizations in the region continue to picket Burmese embassies and hound their officials in their respective territories.
But despite of the pressures exerted by various human rights groups around the world, violations of human rights that include rape, arbitrary killings, forced labor, forced relocation and destruction of ethnic villages remained unchanged.
For the last three to five years, we have seen the international community’s unrelenting advocacy and campaign work aimed in attaining genuine political changes inside Burma. The campaign to block Burma from chairing the ASEAN this year was a major success. Various non-government organizations and people’s organizations in the region continue to picket Burmese embassies and hound their officials in their respective territories.
Recently, the United Nation’s most powerful organ, the Security Council made a bold move by including Burma on its formal agenda. Also, the international media is now more aware on what’s happening in Burma.
Legislators under the banner of the AIPMC or the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus are likewise doing a great job by confronting the junta with their issuance of strong statements and resolutions on various issues in Burma.
But despite of the pressures exerted by various human rights groups around the world, violations of human rights that include rape, arbitrary killings, forced labor, forced relocation and destruction of ethnic villages remained unchanged.
Gambari’s failure
he UN, sadly, is acting like a gullible kid after Ibrahim Gambari’s recent visit to Burma resulted to the extension of Suu Kyi’s house arrest for another year. Gambari is UN Secretary General for Political Affairs. He miscalculated Than Shwe, the Burmese supremo who is very articulate in fabricating lies and false promises.
Gambari was quoted as saying, “Now the ball is clearly in the court of the Burmese government….we are just waiting for concrete action on their part.” This is completely unacceptable. If UN is playing basketball, surely it would lose a fight with a coach like Gambari. Why not give the junta a clear-timetable to initiate concrete reforms instead of simply waiting for the junta to take concrete action? And why wait if the UN itself can draft binding resolutions that can compel the junta to initiate reforms? These are the points that the UN should not ignore.
ASEAN should do more on Burma
More than anybody else, it is the ASEAN that should castigate Burma because the latter is a member. The ASEAN has reached a stage where it is no longer possible to defend Burma considering the stubborn, “secretive and uncooperative”, attitude of the generals in Rangoon.
But is the ASEAN really doing something for Burma? Though there are states like Malaysia, Singapore, and to some extent Thailand that issue criticisms against the junta, will these criticisms result to the abolition of the constructive engagement policy in Burma? Will it result to the possible expulsion of Burma from the ASEAN? Will it compel the generals to free Burmese democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and the rest of hundreds of political prisoners languishing in Burmese jails?
f course, there are pressures that work in some other ways, but the generals in Rangoon are simply too numb to feel any of these. Nor do they seem to give a damn. Blinded by their greed for power, the junta cannot see that surrendering the state power to the truly elected party or even broadening the democratic space inside their country are potential heroic or redemptive deeds. For the junta, Suu Kyi is an opponent and the National League for Democracy (NLD) and the rest of activists are enemies of the state.
This December, the 12th ASEAN summit will be held in Cebu. “One Caring and Sharing Community” is the theme of the summit. Burma watchers around the world will closely monitor all the steps of the ASEAN concerning Burma. If they are really sincere in helping the suffering population of Burma, they should make this summit a venue to put the Burmese generals to task. At the minimum, the intransigence of Burma should be in its agenda. Failure to do so would make the theme of the summit utterly meaningless.
The writer is the Burma Advocacy Staff of the Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID).
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