Counterattack In Burma

[NATO AIR]

I attended an event in Shibuya a week ago where a Burmese ex-general who now is a VP with a Japanese logistics company that does business with the regime there spoke publicly for the first time about his activities as a general in Burma. It was a bit of a public coming out for him, as he and a very sick, tired Burmese woman had a "moment" on stage.

This "moment" was him admitting to her and the 200 of us in attendance that he had tortured her son and husband repeatedly 13 years ago, and that her son died first, of malnourishment and blood loss, and that the father died soon afterwards, possibly of a broken heart but more likely of malnourishment and internal bleeding.

He begged for her forgiveness, and pledged that he hoped she could take heart in at least knowing what had happened once and for all. He'll continue in his role as VP for the company, but now will only work in Japan for fear of reprisals in Burma from the military junta there. He also donated to her and the local Burmese civic group (a very luxury allowed by the Japanese to let that many Burmese in, perhaps about 400 of them, refugees over the past 13-14 years) a grand total of 580,000 yen, around or about $50,000.

I don't think the woman will last very long, with this kind of heartbreak. Not to mention that what really got both her son and husband started on the path of civil disobedience was the brutal rape of her daughter by police in 1992 after she was detained for attending a democracy really.

In more Burma news, TIMEASIA had an excellent cover story on Burma this week, with a really good op-ed from Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), which I want to include here.

http://www.time.com/time/asia/covers/501060130/burma_vpt.html
Counterattack

Sanctions are the most effective weapon against Burma's military regime

By Mitch McConnell

Posted Monday, January 23, 2006; 20:00 HKT
I have never met Nobel laureate and Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, but I hope one day I will. Suu Kyi's picture hangs prominently in my Capitol Hill office, reminding me daily of her plight—and her strength.

Courageous and tenacious, Suu Kyi is the symbol of the nonviolent struggle for freedom and justice in Burma. As head of the National League for Democracy (NLD), she and other Burmese patriots have dedicated their lives to reform in one of the world's most repressive countries, currently misruled by an illegitimate military regime calling itself the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).

Burma today is synonymous with state-sponsored killings, torture and rape. The horrors committed by the SPDC against the people of Burma are known to the entire world—and are spilling over into neighboring countries. In India, Thailand, China and elsewhere, illicit drugs grown and manufactured in Burma wreak havoc. An unchecked HIV/AIDS pandemic follows drug routes emanating from Burma. As many as 700,000 refugees have crossed Burma's borders in recent years seeking safe haven from SPDC atrocities. And inside Burma, the growing phenomenon of internal displacement evidences a people who live in fear and are ruled by force. Burma's problems are Asia's problems, and Asia's problems are the world's.

As befits a superpower rooted in democratic traditions, America has imposed severe economic sanctions against the SPDC. They include banning imported goods from Burma, limiting investments there, forbidding arms sales, and restricting visas for members of the SPDC and junta-affiliated organs. The European Union takes a similar approach, albeit to a lesser degree.

Proponents of engagement with Burma, who wrongly believe the SPDC can be swayed to undertake political and economic reforms through dialogue alone, claim that the people hurt by sanctions are the very ones we are trying to help. But sanctions don't pull the trigger of a gun or indiscriminately rape ethnic-minority women and girls. Proponents of engagement say that sanctions don't work, and that they offer no incentives for Burmese generals to change their hard-line positions. They could not be more wrong. The efforts of Thailand and Japan over the years to reform Burma through engagement have yielded no results. Further, with the sacking and imprisonment of SPDC Prime Minister Khin Nyunt last year, Bangkok and Tokyo have lost their primary interlocutor in the Burmese government.

Sanctions worked in South Africa, and they will in Burma too. They strike at the junta's lifeblood, namely its monopoly on all investments and total dominance of Burma's licit and illicit economies. Sanctions are a tremendous loss of face for the SPDC, a scarlet letter, particularly in the international arena. More important, sanctions empower those in Burma on the front lines of this struggle. The fact that the legitimately elected leaders in Burma support sanctions should be enough for democratic nations to impose them.

Until recently, Burma was a low priority for most foreign governments. Now it is all the more important that democratic nations consistently challenge the SPDC's tyranny at every opportunity in the international arena. The SPDC's forfeiture of its chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (asean) in 2006 indicates not only that asean is finally embarrassed by its most odious member, but that the generals in Rangoon do indeed respond to outside pressure. We must keep this pressure up. The renewal of sanctions against the junta last summer by overwhelming votes in the U.S. Congress underscores Washington's commitment to democracy in Burma. And efforts by members of the U.N. Security Council to discuss Burma have already met with some success, giving the junta the scrutiny it has long deserved. Dialogue without pressure leads nowhere.

The cause of and solution to Burma's problems are political. Through sanctions and unwavering support for the forces of freedom in Burma, democratic nations must secure the immediate and unconditional release of Suu Kyi and all prisoners of conscience, the first necessary step toward a credible process of national reconciliation. The NLD and Burma's ethnic minorities must have a seat at the negotiating table, and the phony efforts by the SPDC to hold a sham constitutional convention must be roundly denounced. Only then will freedom come to Burma.

The triumph over evil in Burma will take time. But the Lady can count on my support for as long as it takes.

Senator Mitch McConnell is the second-ranking Republican in the U.S. Senate, and chairman of the State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs Appropriations Subcommittee