Burma - Events of 2006
Human Rights Watch
http://hrw.org/
Burma's international isolation deepened
during 2006 as the authoritarian military government, the State
Peace and Development Council (SPDC), continued to restrict basic
rights and freedoms and waged brutal counterinsurgency operations
against ethnic minorities. The democratic movement inside the
country remained suppressed, and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other
political activists continued to be detained or imprisoned. International
efforts to foster change in Burma were thwarted by the SPDC and
sympathetic neighboring governments.
These regressions were epitomized by the
SPDC's move in November 2005 to a new "administrative capitol"
called Nay Pyi Taw, 300 kilometers north of Rangoon and deep in
the interior. The regime relocated key ministries and thousands
of public servants to the purpose-built city during 2006, and
notified foreign embassies that they could begin voluntary relocation
during 2007. No official reason was given for the surprise move,
although the main factors appear to include concerns over possible
civilian protests in Rangoon, foreign criticism of the SPDC, a
fear of a foreign military intervention, and the need to locate
the SPDC more centrally to direct its military campaigns against
ethnic insurgencies along the eastern border. Forced labor was
used in building the capitol, and many public servants were given
no choice over moving there.
Lack of Progress on Democracy and Human
Rights
There was no progress in 2006 on national
reconciliation or the 2003 "road map" for a transition
to democracy. In May, National League for Democracy (NLD) leader
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's detention was extended by another year
despite continuing international calls for her release. This marks
her eleventh year under house arrest, where she is held in solitary
confinement and denied most visitors, newspapers, telephone, or
correspondence.
On September 27 three members of the "88
Students Generation," Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi, and Htay Kywe,
were arrested in Rangoon for issuing a statement in support of
an impending United Nations Security Council debate on Burma.
As of this writing they remain imprisoned. More than 1,200 people
are imprisoned for their political beliefs and activities. Most
political party offices, including the NLD's, remain closed or
under strict surveillance, and political party activities are
generally curtailed.
The protracted National Convention to
write a new constitution was suspended again in January, and resumed
on October 10 at Nyaunghnapin camp in Hnawby township near Rangoon.
The SPDC claimed that 75 percent of the work on the constitution
had been completed. This process has involved many legal political
parties and ethnic militias with which the government has signed
a ceasefire, but many more have been excluded. All of the discussions
have been conducted within strict guidelines that deter debate
or dissent.
Continued Violence against Ethnic Groups
In the conflict areas, human rights violations
such as forced labor for Burmese army units, rape of women and
girls, and summary executions continue. Army predation on the
civilian population for money, land, and food is widespread.
A large-scale military offensive in northern
Karen state during 2006 displaced an estimated 27,000 civilians,
and destroyed some 232 villages and their crops and food stocks.
Scores of civilians were killed and thousands taken as forced
porters to support the operation. Prisoners were used as forced
porters, and many of them were summarily executed during operations.
Ceasefire talks with factions of the Karen National Union (KNU)
broke down in October.
In Shan state, leaders of the Shan Nationalities
League for Democracy (SNLD) continued to be incarcerated following
their arrest in 2005, with one member dying in prison from ill-treatment
in 2006. A faction of the Shan State Army-South (SSA-S) surrendered
to the SPDC in June, but soon broke the agreement and many of
its members returned to the SSA-S. The SPDC has pressured ethnic
ceasefire militias, including the Wa and Pa-O armies, into attacking
the SSA-S. The SPDC uses other ethnic militias as auxiliary forces
to suppress the rural population. Many of these militias are thought
to be financing themselves through trade in illegal drugs.
The SPDC continues to forcibly recruit
children into its armed forces.
Humanitarian Concerns, Internal Displacement,
and Refugees
Internal displacement in minority ethnic
areas continues to be a serious concern, with over 500,000 civilians
deemed to be internally displaced in eastern Burma, and thousands
more whose numbers cannot be reliably ascertained, in parts of
the country where effective monitoring is impossible. The SPDC
restricts the activities of foreign aid agencies generally, and
blocks humanitarian aid to areas of ongoing conflict. Untreated
cases of malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and other illnesses have
reached serious levels.
In February 2006 the SPDC issued new guidelines
setting out the rules for travel, partnerships and project implementation
of all international agencies, including the UN. Significant variation
between the English and Burmese texts of the guidelines raised
fears that there would be disagreements in interpretation between
agencies and SPDC authorities. As a result of these restrictions,
some aid agencies withdrew from Burma, most notably Medecins Sans
Frontieres.
Following the 2005 withdrawal of the multi-sectoral
Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the Three
Disease Fund, which provides funding for treatment, pledged US$100
million over the next five years for health projects. Independent
of the SPDC and of the mainly European and Australian donors,
this Fund is run by the UN Office for Project Services, and is
scheduled to begin work in late 2006.
The Thai army continues to restrict refugees
coming into Thailand, although more than 2,000 Karen civilians
fleeing the fighting in northern Karen state were permitted into
established camps. A small Shan refugee camp was ordered to move
back into Burma in April 2006 by Thai authorities, although this
order was soon rescinded and the refugees were permitted to stay,
but newer Shan refugees are not allowed in. In total there are
some 156,000 refugees from Burma in Thailand. In August the UN
High Commissioner for Refugees and a senior US State Department
official visited a refugee camp in Thailand and pledged more assistance
for refugee resettlement to third countries. In a positive development,
the US government in May and August issued waivers for many ethnic
Karen refugees on the material support condition under Homeland
Security guidelines, permitting them to resettle in the United
States.
International Actors
In May 2006 UN Under-Secretary-General
for Political Affairs Ibrahim Gambari visited the new capital
Nay Pyi Taw and spoke with Burmese President Than Shwe and other
SPDC leaders, who assured him that national reconciliation efforts
were proceeding on schedule. Gambari also visited Aung San Suu
Kyi (the visit was two days before her detention was again extended).
The UN special rapporteur on human rights in Burma, Paulo Sérgio
Pinheiro, has not been permitted to visit the country since November
2003. His report to the UN General Assembly in September detailed
"continuing impunity" by SPDC officials, which has resulted
in "the criminalization of the exercise of fundamental freedoms
by political opponents, human rights defenders and victims of
human rights abuses." Razali Ismael resigned as the UN Secretary
General special envoy in January 2006 because the SPDC continued
to deny him permission to visit since March 2004. He has not been
replaced.
In December 2005 and again in May 2006
the UN Security Council (UNSC) held briefings on conditions in
Burma to determine whether the country constituted a threat to
international peace. On September 29, 2006, the Security Council
discussed Burma as part of its formal agenda, but opposition from
China and Russia frustrated attempts to pass a resolution.
The International Labor Organization (ILO)
called on the SPDC to cease prosecuting Burmese citizens who report
incidents of forced labor to the ILO. Two Burmese citizens, Su
Su Nway and Aye Myint, had charges against them dropped in June
and July respectively, for reporting forced labor to the ILO the
previous year. However, civilians continue to be prosecuted for
passing information to the organization.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) voiced increasing frustration with the SPDC over its slow
pace of reform and limited engagement with international actors.
Scheduled visits from ASEAN officials were postponed or curtailed
by the SPDC, at the same time that the government asked members
of the regional group not to support UNSC action on Burma. Expressing
the new approach of ASEAN, Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid
Albar declared, "ASEAN has reached a stage where it is not
possible to defend its member when that member is not making an
attempt to cooperate." However, in August 2006 Thailand's
then-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra paid an unscheduled one-day
visit to Burma designed to procure business contracts, including
gas exploration concessions in Arakan state and a resumption of
logging concessions. Over the objections of some Asian and European
countries, the SPDC sent representatives to the Asia-Europe Meeting
(ASEM) in Helsinki in September 2006.
China and India continued to provide political
and economic support to the SPDC, and failed to fully back international
calls for reform. China and Russia continued to sell the SPDC
large numbers of weapons, while the United States and European
Union maintained sanctions.
Burma watch
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