Nasty Regime, Watchword for Burma Vigilance,By Mitch McConnell

The Asian Wall Street Journal,
06/18/2001

In a speech before the British Parliament in 1982, President Ronald Reagan declared "We must be staunch in our convictions that freedom is not the sole prerogative of a lucky few, but the inalienable and universal right of all human beings." These hallowed words bear truth today, but they unfortunately ring hollow in Burma.

The international community has a moral obligation to stand by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy in their struggle for democracy, human rights and the rule of law in Burma. Under some of the most repressive conditions in the world, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters have waged a decade-long, nonviolent struggle to claim what they rightfully won in the May 1990 elections: legitimate leadership of the Texas-sized, Southeast Asian nation. Burma's military-led State Peace and Development Council annulled a free and fair election and the Burmese people's aspiration for democratic rule.

With few exceptions, the SPDC has been roundly condemned for its mismanagement of the country and the maltreatment of the people of Burma. To be Burmese today is to endure unimaginable hardships and humiliation imposed by thugs and thieves more interested in protecting the status quo than bringing the country into the 21st century. Under the SPDC's oppressive hand, the political, economic and social development of Burma has been set back for decades. An exploding HIV/AIDS infection rate that is propagated by the military's involvement in the illicit opium trade and prostitution has already permanently handicapped generations of Burmese, all of whom have been denied the most fundamental human rights and civil liberties. The 2001 Human Rights Watch World Report offers a blunt assessment of the importance the SPDC places on the welfare of the Burmese people: The corrupt junta "took no steps to improve its dire human rights record."

The international community must maintain political and economic pressure on Rangoon. In Geneva, the 89th Session of the International Labor Conference is underway and Burma's use of child and forced labor will be on the agenda. Last November, in an unprecedented move, the United Nation's International Labor Organization called for sanctions against Burma because of its use of forced labor. This outrage was echoed in the U.S. Senate where legislation was recently introduced to ban the import to America of any goods produced or manufactured in that country. The international community should respond to the SPDC's systemic forced-labor practices firmly and in accordance with the ILO mandate. The world can no longer tolerate the use of Burmese children as soldiers and porters for army patrols.

Vigilance must be the watchword for Burma. The United Kingdom and the United States continue to have an important leadership role in maintaining and increasing global pressure on the junta. On May 15, President George W. Bush declared an emergency to deal with the threat posed to America's national security and foreign policy by the SPDC, which triggered the continuation of the ban on new investments in Burma by American individuals and companies. As the author of the 1997 law that prohibits such investments, I am particularly pleased by the president's support of the ILO's call for all member states to end ties that abet the continued use of forced labor in that country. On the heels of its successful election campaign, the Labour Party in the U.K. should make similar statements in support of the Burma boycott.

Japan should be publicly censured for approving a $28.6 million aid package to Burma for the reconstruction of a hydroelectric dam. There simply is no justification for one of Asia's strongest democracies to provide assistance to an illegitimate regime. To restore their national honor and stature among the world's democracies, Japan should immediately suspend the assistance package and publicly reaffirm its commitment to the de facto global ban on bilateral and multi-lateral assistance to Rangoon.

Next month, the U.S. and other nations will gather in Hanoi for the 34th Association of Southeast Asian Nations Ministerial Meeting and Post-Ministerial Conferences. The Asean foreign ministers have already decided to put drugs high on their agenda and with good reason: Methamphetamines from Burma have flooded Thailand and the region in recent years, and according to the U.N. Burma is again the world's biggest producer of opium. The U.S. and other Asean dialogue partners have a unique opportunity to reaffirm their opposition to the lawlessness and repression of the SPDC -- and for their support of a democratic Burma.

Despite the recent release of some NLD leaders generated presumably by the secret dialogue between Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi and military generals, efforts of U.N. envoy Razali Ismail have yielded few results. Democracy activists remain imprisoned and the NLD continues to be prohibited from meeting in Burma. In testifying before the U.S. Congress last month, Secretary of State Colin Powell offered a more sobering assessment of the talks, saying they offer "a few rays of hope, but they are few and they are dim."

The 42 million people of Burma deserve more than dim rays of hope for the future. It is the international community's responsibility to stand hand-in-hand with the Burmese people until they are no longer denied their unalienable rights of human dignity and freedom. To do less would only aid and abet the heinous crimes and injustices of the SPDC.

Mr. McConnell is a U.S. senator (Republican-Kentucky) and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee.