BURMA DIGEST

BURMA DIGEST

17.09.2006

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Throwing Light on the Conspiracy Theory

_ by Taisamyone

Last week, the US raised the issue of bringing Burma onto the UN Security Council agenda for September. As we might expect, the New Light of Myanmar countered with a long diatribe describing the news as evidence of an attempted conspiracy by the US and various terrorist organisations (the NLM calls them “axe-handles”) to impose a ‘puppet government’ on Burma. This statement seems at odds with the rather more subdued response of Burma’s Foreign Minister Nyan Win in Helsinki who said that the SPDC was “ready to cooperate with the United Nations.” I don’t believe that either were telling the truth.

The article refers to the fact that the US changed its relationship with Burma from September 1988 with the intention of installing a puppet government. Before that time, US governments were woefully unaware that their drugs eradication policy of supplying toxic herbicide to Ne Win’s government was misused by the Tatmadaw to eradicate ethnic people as well as their crops. No one was allowed into Burma to find out what was happening, so the conservative hawks in Washington could give tacit support to the brutal regime, while ignoring the lack of freedom and democracy in Burma. Well, they got a rude awakening in September 1988, when the people of Burma rose up and demanded to be heard, demanded freedom, demanded democracy; the regime did what it knows best – killed them off as quickly as possible by subterfuge and bullets, torture, rape, and killing unarmed civilian protesters and anyone who murmured dissent; moving to establish cease-fire agreements with many armed ethnic groups to leave the Tatmadaw free to suppress the Burman population of central Burma.

In September 1988, the US, as a proponent of democracy, could not stand by and keep up its pretence of unknowing; they started the condemnation of brutality, stopped investments in Burma and since that time have been proponents of change and supporters of the democracy movement. So yes, the relationship between the US and Burma did change; the US woke up to the reality of fascist dictatorship. They know full well that their previous attempts at puppet governments in South East Asia had ended in disaster for their foreign policy – Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia had all suffered years of persecution, horror and warfare; some of it as a direct result of the US’s direct involvement and covert CIA operations. 1988 was a time to support the demands of the people – to support peace initiatives, to support true democracy and not rightist militaristic reactionary social structures. The US has changed over the years and learnt from its mistakes of the past, although some will argue that it still makes the same mistakes in the Middle East conflict and the war on terror. We can all look back into a murky past and criticize, but we can also see that whilst the US policy in SE Asia has moved from interventionist anti-communist vehemence to one of accommodation, reconciliation and dialogue; Burma has moved from a struggling open democracy to an oppressive authoritarian military regime.

The NLM also uses the article to attack the NCGUB for feeding various US congressmen and senators with information about Burma, as well as colluding with ‘terrorist’ organisations and causing destructive acts. As I understand the situation, the NCGUB is formed from elected members of parliament of Burma’s 1990 elections – who have been denied their right to govern by the military junta. The NCGUB fled Burma to avoid persecution, imprisonment with other political prisoners and also so that they could tell the rest of the world the truth about the political situation in Burma. They continue to do this and constantly call for tri-partite dialogue and a swift transition to civilian government – something they should be doing, and joining with as a political organisation. The junta however, have their own version of transition to civilian government – one in which the Tatmadaw will have all the power and dictate the constitution, and in which the people have no say whatsoever. In fact, it is the Tatmadaw who are trying to coerce the people of Burma into accepting a puppet government – one which they are promulgating through their ‘National Convention’. They tried it before with the 1974 constitution – vote for Ne Win, or go to jail – it didn’t work then and it won’t work now. Whilst the NCGUB and other pro-democracy activists call for Reconciliation, the SPDC’s political objectives call for National Reconsolidation – and there is a big difference. Whilst the democracy movement wants an immediate transfer of power to those elected to govern and to work together to reconcile differences in the various political factions in Burma, and to ‘reconcile’ diametrically opposed views and armed (and disarmed) groups; the junta wants to consolidate their power and ‘make solid’ the iron grasp that they hold over the people by force and tyranny.

The NLM claims that the ‘conspiracy’ is between the US government (the alien masters) and ‘national traitors’, like the NCGUB and their insurgent lackeys. This conspiracy is a threat to the SPDC and the developments that they have achieved. These developments include the work that the Ministry of Health have achieved with respect to HIV/AIDS. The NLM claims that the MOH is combating HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria through a range of measures – some of which we read recently include Burmese weeds. The NLM goes on to slate the US and the NLD for using the suffering of HIV/AIDS patients for political purposes. As I see it, the MOH has used the Global Fund and other international and NGO aid agencies as political pawns of their own ‘ethnic genocide’ machinations; allowing treatment of subdued civilians and preventing aid getting to ‘black’ areas not controlled by the Tatmadaw. The NLD, as a major political and civil society force in Burma, has every right to provide education, drugs and support to those suffering from HIV/AIDS. It is the SPDC who are using healthcare for political purposes, putting their own survival as topmost priority and the health of the people of Burma a long way down the list of national priorities. Burma also has an extremely serious disease – just as deadly as any of these above – it has a cancerous growth that is threatening the very life and soul of the country. It took hold surreptitiously in the 1950s, and first became apparent in 1962. Since a major traumatic eruption in 1988, the cancer has been growing larger and more life-threatening each year. I’m no doctor, but treatments are available; surgery, hospital treatment, drugs, palliative care, etc. What is important is that as this disease is at such an advanced stage, treatment is administered as quickly as possible to be effective – before the country slips into the bottom of the pit and into terminal decline.

Whilst sections of the US’s past is nothing to boast about, Burma’s present is not the rosy picture of development that the NLM would have us believe. The NLM refers to ‘objective developments and changes’ as if these are actually leading to some golden land of plenty. Substantive research has been carried out by expatriate groups and by independent organisations from around the world; some, like the ILO and ICRC, working with the SPDC; others, like the Back Pack Health Workers Team and Free Burma Rangers, working on the fringes along the borders held by insurgent (freedom fighter) groups. All have something to say about life in Burma – mostly that life for the common people is death, suffering, unjust and miserable because the SPDC rules Burma. All of the accusations that the US made in their brief statement to the UN Security Council are true, verified by numerous world-wide organisations as well as the US State Department’s own voluminous reports. I could list Amnesty International, Refugees International, Karen Human Rights Group, Shan Human Rights Foundation, S.H.A.N., S.W.A.N., Women’s League of Chinland, Palaung Women’s Organisation, AAPPB, AIPMC, as well as various US and UN organisations as indicating the truth behind John Bolton’s short letter to the UNSC. I do not consider any of these esteemed organisations to be ‘terrorists’ as the NLM claims. It is only the SPDC who try to cover up their incompetence and brutality with lies and wild distortions of the truth using their mouthpiece media – although another part of the body’s anatomy comes to mind when reading the material in NLM!

The SPDC in NLM also calls on its friends in the Non-Aligned Movement and ASEAN as supporters of Burma’s right to deal with its ‘domestic’ situation. Whilst NAM may prevaricate for a while – many of their members mistrust the US and increasingly everything that the US does - ASEAN are finally giving up on Burma, and may even eject Burma from ASEAN until there is actual political change, and not just talk about change at some unspecified time in the future. ASEAN are going to leave Burma for the UN to sort out – either via the Security Council, the General Assembly or another part – just as long as they themselves don’t have to try to ‘constructively engage’ with the SPDC over democracy in Burma.

The US headed up its list of concerns over Burma’s government involvement with drugs trafficking. The SPDC claim to be tackling this issue with international support, but in reality, they pay lip service to the UNODC, concocting figures to suit their purpose and making bonfires of a small fraction of the annual crop. But of course, even if the SPDC stopped its involvement with drugs this year, they have a long history of involvement, either directly or with their erstwhile ceasefire groups (drugs trafficking, money laundering, extortion and corruption) that makes them complicit in US$ billions of illicit trade – and those who have directly benefited from this lucrative illegal trade should be ousted from government office – even if that leaves many offices practically empty and many Tatmadaw officers out on their ear. And there are still drug king cronies of the SPDC, like Khun Sa and Wei Hsueh-kang, who have large bounties on their heads in Thailand and the US. Whilst drug money funds corruption throughout the SPDC, and while the SPDC fails to address the real issues of the border areas, the drugs trade will continue - until there is real political reform in Burma that includes representation of all the ethnic peoples of Burma.

Far from being a conspiracy of the US and the NCGUB, the calls to the UN Security Council come at a time when numerous groups worldwide are calling for UN action against the SPDC, whether it is AIPMC, Global Shan Community, Burma Digest, KHRG, Burma Campaign UK, US Campaign for Burma, the EU or numerous other countries and international groups – all of the concerned humanitarian and pro-democracy peoples of the world are united in their opposition to the SPDC. This is not a conspiracy, it is a free flow of ideas from people who are free to think and act for themselves and who care for the people of Burma and who care for freedom and democracy; not a political act, but a humanitarian cause. This current action by the US is welcomed by many as another step in the right direction. The UN Security Council may not discuss Burma this September, but the pressure is building in the international community for action. If not now, then soon; the sooner the better.

Tai Samyone

Quotations

In an interview with CSW, a former Burma Army Major who has defected confirmed the widespread use of rape by the SPDC, and the use of child soldiers. He said that SPDC soldiers are given a quota of new soldiers to recruit each month, to help the army expand. Soldiers go to railway stations, bus stations and other public locations and simply grab whoever they can find. “Sometimes the children are so young that they still pee in the night,” he said. “That gives you an idea of the age of the youngest child soldiers.” They also take elderly men who are not really fit to serve as soldiers. “Many of the recruits are too young or too old to be in the army,” the defector said. (Burma's Kachin Christians face discrimination, rape, forced labour and human trafficking, reveals new CSW report 07/09/2006 http://www.csw.org.uk/latestnews/article.php?id=546)
“There is a real opportunity to work in the General Assembly… to call attention to some of the key critical human rights crises in the world, and so we’re going to do that as an important priority,” she said. “Then we think the [Security] Council will need to take action [on Burma] later this fall.” (US Ready to Push on Burma at UN: Kristen Silverberg, US State Department official)
Under the UN Security Council Charter, the functions and powers of the Security Council are: _
to maintain international peace and security in accordance with the principles and purposes of the United Nations;
to investigate any dispute or situation which might lead to international friction;
to recommend methods of adjusting such disputes or the terms of settlement;
to formulate plans for the establishment of a system to regulate armaments;
to determine the existence of a threat to the peace or act of aggression and to recommend what action should be taken;
to call on Members to apply economic sanctions and other measures not involving the use of force to prevent or stop aggression;
to take military action against an aggressor;
to recommend the admission of new Members;
to exercise the trusteeship functions of the United Nations in "strategic areas";
to recommend to the General Assembly the appointment of the Secretary-General and, together with the Assembly, to elect the Judges of the International Court of Justice.
"In order to be effective truth must penetrate like an arrow — and that is likely to hurt." — Posthumous Pieces by Wei Wu Wei
"Maybe if we tell the truth about the past, we can tell the truth about the present." - Ken Loach, Cannes Festival Awards 2006