PRESS CONFERENCE SPONSORED BY DENMARK

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE SPONSORED BY DENMARK

At a press conference sponsored by Denmark this afternoon, guest speakers from the World Federation of United Nations Associations (WFUNA) and the “National Coalition Government of Burma (NCGUB)” were presented.

Hansel Cordeiro, Public Relations Officer of the WFUNA, said this press conference was similar to several during the past two years on preventive diplomacy and the role of the United Nations in the crisis currently taking place in Burma in the hope that the general public would become more aware of the situation in Burma. The WFUNA wholeheartedly supported the idea of free elections in Burma, as the people must have the right to choose their government.

Bo Hla Tint, the Minister for North and South American Affairs of the National Coalition Government of Burma, said that anyone familiar with the situation in Burma knew that the human rights situation was terrible and getting worse. This was due to intensified suppression of the democracy movement and the non-Burmese ethnic nationalities struggling for self-determination. Cases of extra-judicial murder, torture, rape, forced labor, ethnic cleansing, illegal arrest, repression of political and religious expression, and freedom of association and speech were listed in the 1999 edition of the NCGUB Burma Human Rights Yearbook. He asked for preventive diplomacy and early intervention in Myanmar.

The right to education was denied to the entire nation because the universities remained closed. There were both more refugees and more forced labourers in Burma than there were people in East Timor, he said. It was time to begin solving the problems. Despite eight consecutive General Assembly resolutions the military regime -– the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) -– continued to hold onto power by means of terror.

From the lessons learned in Kosovo, Rwanda and East Timor, it was clear that the most cost-effective means to prevent, contain or resolve conflict in Burma was to act now, before the situation spiraled down to disaster and another costly intervention was needed. He asked for a General Assembly resolution demanding protection of the human rights of the people of Burma. He quoted Daw San Suu Kyi in her message to the last session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, saying, “What we need now is more than mere words. We need concrete action because our people are suffering not just from an onslaught of words, but from the deprivation of basic justice in our country.”

He asked the United Nations and international agencies not to hold annual meetings in Burma anymore as if nothing were out of the ordinary. The need was for the international community to speak with one voice in developing a road map leading to dialogue and a political solution in Burma. “We do not want more sympathy”, he said. “We want more action.”

Naw May Oo, coordinator for women’s affairs of the NCGUB, said that the SPDC had not proven their desire for peace and stability despite ceasefire agreements reached between the regime and some ethnic resistant groups. The regime had not

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improved the human rights situation and it showed no respect for the international community and neighbouring countries. A majority of Burma’s population fell into a category described by the Secretary-General in his address to the fifty-fourth General Assembly session when he said, “There are a great number of peoples who need more than just words of sympathy from the international community. They need a real and sustained commitment to help end their cycles of violence, and launch them on a safe passage to prosperity.”

She likened the human rights violations in areas like Karen State, Karenni State and Shan State to crimes against humanity. The patterns of human rights violations could be seen in the form of forced relocation of villages, with their destruction of community, livestock and culture, and in the forced labor from which men, women and children suffered. The women suffered doubly: forced labour during the daytime and sex labour -– systematic rape -– at night. She said that the SPDC troops had become more aggressive than ever in aforementioned areas. This had caused an increase in the number of refugees. There were 120,000 refugees, mostly in Thailand, and 300,000 internally displaced persons.

She asked the international community to reinstate their ethic of intervention on humanitarian grounds, and she urged for preventive diplomacy to prevent her country, which had already faced too many atrocities, from more bloodshed. She hoped for a sense of urgency and strength to act.

Thaung Htun, Representative for United Nations Affairs of the NCGUB, said that in the international arena there was a growing consensus that the United Nations should take the lead by initiating political change in Burma. Despite the military regime’s defiance of all General Assembly resolutions, there were small signs of hope. The SPDC recently allowed a visit of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and of a European Union fact-finding mission. It seemed that the regime was desperate for international recognition and assistance. That was the result of sanctions imposed by various members of the international community in the last 10 years. “Sanctions do work”, he said.

Key international players had met at Chilston Park last year to explore a coordinated international strategy regarding Burma, he said. International assistance through the United Nations and the World Bank would be used as incentives to entice the military regime into a political dialogue. The NCGUB did not object to that initiative, but was concerned that, without a concrete proposal for a democratic transition in Burma with specific benchmarks and a time-frame imposed by international key actors, there was a risk of manipulation and delaying tactics. He asked for another Chilston Park-like meeting that would work on a detailed road map for democratic transition in Burma.

The NCGUB recognized the role of regional partners, particularly the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its development partners, such as the Republic of Korea, Japan and Australia. As the experience of East Timor showed, however, there should be a greater potential role for regional partners. They could take a proactive response to the threat of conflict in Burma, since the extension of such conflict would undermine peace and stability in the entire region. The initiatives by private citizens within the region to facilitate confidence-building measures between the parties in conflict in Burma should be promoted. It was, however, of the utmost importance that regional

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initiatives, both official and non-official, should be in convergence with mediation efforts of the Secretary-General. Deteriorating human rights and socioeconomic conditions in Burma required a concerted and effective international intervention, he said.

Asked what the regional partners had done so far, Mr. Htun said that so far ASEAN still maintained the policy of constructive engagement. Some of the ASEAN countries also actively engaged in quiet diplomacy, urging the military regime for a dialogue. Last year Thailand and the Philippines tried to introduce a new approach for ASEAN: flexible engagement, a concept that advocated that regional groups should address issues when internal affairs started to have an impact on the region. The changes in Indonesia and East Timor were a very encouraging sign, he said, and he hoped that ASEAN would go to another level of regional cooperation.

Another correspondent asked whether the NCGUB would be willing to work with the military government. Mr. Htun said that since the beginning of his movement a dialogue without preconditions was sought. But it was always the military regime that made unacceptable conditions to open one. Initial reconciliation should be focused on the entire population and not on the interest of one party or institution. The NCGUB was always ready to work with the military regime for a democratic transition in Burma.

To the question whether restriction of aid to Burma would hurt the people, Mr. Htun said that NCGUB did not object in principle to humanitarian assistance. His concern was that humanitarian assistance did not reach the right people. The military did not allow aid organizations to work with independent community-based organizations. Humanitarian assistance should not be used by the military as a political tool, he said. A mechanism should be developed that could insure that humanitarian assistance reached all the people who were in need of it.

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