Playing God in Burma

Mizzima

By May Ng

November 1, 2007 - Between one and two hundred monks marched through the northern town of Pakokku yesterday, chanting the sutra of loving kindness, the Metta Sutta, as a pro-junta rally was being held simultaneously in another part of town.

The monks marched under the Sasana flags, and again demanded lower commodity prices, national reconciliation, and the immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi and political prisoners.

These monks risked arrest, torture and death. Under the gaze of the Buddha, the monasteries in Rangoon and other parts of Burma have been raided and monks have been brutalized since the September uprising. During the past 45 years, the Myanmar military has declared war on every religion including Buddhism. But, finally the prayers of the people are answered through an unforeseen miracle called advanced information technology.

The people's September mass uprising relied mostly on hopes and prayers alone. Almost all of the opposition's politicians and leaders were under arrest or under constant surveillance when the uprising came into full swing. Information was spread through informal news coverage on radio and through the internet. The politicians and student leaders were never allowed to meet or speak in public and had no opportunity to make plans or call for actions.

It was a miracle that the people decided to come out in massive numbers to demonstrate while most of their leaders were in prison. Only student leader Ko Htay Kywe who had escaped the arrests in August was able to participate in the movement by giving telephone interviews. He and his family with an infant daughter made enormous sacrifices for Burma. The people of Burma are indebted to this great man for his courage, wisdom and his sincere commitment to a peaceful political change. Ko Htay Kywe's political stature has risen considerably since the protest.

Even thought the soldiers are still present the people of Burma do not run away to other countries like in 1988. They are outgunned for the moment but every indication is pointing to their determination to remain defiant. Like Ko Htay Kywe who decided to remain in Burma to keep up the struggle for democracy even as the soldiers were hunting for him, young people are staying to fight for freedom instead of running away.

Since the world witnessed the brutality of the military, the reputation of the junta has suffered an irreparable damage, especially at home, and also abroad. After the military had slaughtered 3000 demonstrators in Burma during the 1988 uprising, the United Nations did not take any action against the Myanmar junta. The officers who committed the mass murders were promoted and many of them today hold key government positions.

In recent days, the military has awarded criminal thugs in Myanmar handsomely for helping to brutalize the peaceful monks. It is no longer a secret in Burma that criminals control the streets while good and decent people are in prisons, and that monks are forced to bow to sadistic men who are given free hand to rape, torture and murder innocent people at will.

It is no wonder that the Burmese people find hope in the idea of democracy. The founder of modern democracy, Thomas Paine, argued in Common Sense (1776) that even brutes do not devour their young, nor do savages inflict war upon their families. If the assertion that the Myanmar Tatmadaw is the savior and protector of Burma were true, then the more shame on their conduct of attacking the revered Burmese monks and killing the helpless future generation of Burma.

On 27 September 2007 British diplomats issued a blunt warning to Burma's generals, that "the age of impunity is dead". The organization Human Rights First recently brought awareness to crimes against humanity in Burma. According to HRF, the rights groups and the United Nations have documented widespread and systematic human rights abuses by the Burmese junta against its own population since it seized power decades ago.

Those violations include the following crimes against humanity: forced displacement of ethnic minorities, forced labor, recruitment of child soldiers, rape as a state policy, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings as well as custodial killings, and torture.

At the 2005 World Summit of the U.N. General Assembly, the nations of the world for the first time expressed a clear acceptance of the responsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity, by taking prompt and decisive
collective action.

But in reality, during the last 25 years, in places like Cambodia, Uganda, and Rwanda, the international community has failed to stop massive human rights violations, including genocide. This time, the U.N. should take immediate action for a change, to stop the Myanmar regime from continuing their crimes against humanity in Burma.

According to a October 2007 Jane's Intelligence Review, despite international pressure, as highlighted by UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari's September visit to Myanmar, there is little evidence to suggest that the military regime's authority has been eroded. The report also states it is likely that an emerging younger generation of military officers assuming control in the medium term will follow the same policies that have preserved the Tatmadaw's (armed forces) sovereignty.

In the mean time, the same military which has promised a stronger independence for Burma instead chose to become more dependent on China, Russia and India in spite of the country's vast natural resources.

Jane's Intelligence Review reported that Myanmar has been in discussions with Russia since 2000 about the purchase of a 10 megawatt low-enriched water reactor for medical research purposes. Neighbouring countries including Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia have similar existing facilities.

The report states initial talks between Atomstroiexport of Moscow and Myanmar's Minister of Science and Technology U Thaung broke off in 2003 because Myanmar had reportedly insufficient funds for the project. However, thanks to growing export earnings from natural gas, the country's balance of payment positions is now better than it has been in decades. The rulers in the new capital Naypyidaw therefore feel it is time to resume negotiations.

Michael Green and Derek Mitchell state in Asia's Forgotten Crisis that although the UN Security Council now openly talks about Burma as a threat to international peace and security, China and Russia have vetoed attempts to impose international sanctions.

They say that UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon has appointed the former Nigerian diplomat and UN official Ibrahim Gambari to continue the organization's so far fruitless dialogue with the junta about reform.

Green and Mitchell conclude that China and India could be the greatest obstacles for efforts to induce reform in Burma. By throwing China's weight behind the SPDC, Beijing has complicated strategic calculations for those of Burma's neighbors who are actually concerned about the direction the country is moving in, thus enabling the junta to pursue a classic divide-and-conquer approach.

As a consequence, Asian states expanded trade, aid, and diplomatic engagement with the junta by granting Burma full membership in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in 1997. But a decade later, Burma has evolved from being an antidemocratic embarrassment and humanitarian disaster to being a serious threat to the security of it neighbors.

In early 2007 China and Russia cast their first joint veto in the UN Security Council in 35 years to block a measure that would have sanctioned the SPCD. Green and Mitchell said that the move was consistent with both states' historical objections to any attempts by the Security Council to sanction a country for human rights violation.

Beijing's overall strategic goals over the past few years will make it difficult to convince China to change its Burma policy. As Green and Mitchell said, Beijing's engagement with the SPDC has been essential to the regime's survival. China has provided it with moral and financial support including funds and material to pay off Burmese military elites, thus increasing its leverage at home and broad.

But the days of China playing God in Burma may hit their limit. Warren Buffett, until then together with the Chinese government the largest stake holder of Petro China, sold most of his shares on September 30, publicly claiming to take profit, while the stock and oil prices were still going up. Petro China is the publicly listed division of the China National Petroleum Co., which had come under harsh criticism for doing business with the repressive government of Sudan first, and now also for doing business with the Myanmar military government.

Previously, Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. had sold a small stake in the Chinese oil company a few days before July 31, when the United Nations passed a groundbreaking resolution. The agreement, brokered largely with the support of China, authorizes a U.N. peacekeeping force of 26,000 to police Darfur.

Burmese monks are peaceful and have no way of resisting the government's aggression. But the time for China to face its own devil may be coming.

Beside the substantial but quiet blow created by Buffett's exit, a Darfur rebel group attacked Sudan's Defra oilfield in the Kordofan region. The rebels took a Canadian and an Iraqi oil worker hostage, both employees of the Chinese-led consortium, the Greater Nile

Petroleum Operating Company. The Justice and Equality Movement (Jem) say they want China to withdraw its support for the Sudanese government. Rebels told China to leave Sudan by October 25th, 2007.

Innovest Strategic Value Advisors, Inc. on October 31st, 2007 responded to strong client demand by announcing the launch of a new screening tool that will track the ever-increasing risk for corporate operations in Burma. This will also help to put the atrocities committed by the military under an increased international radar screen.

There are many other miracles that are possible for the peaceful people of Burma. One may possibly still come in the form of a film-maker, Steven Spielberg, who is designing the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Spielberg could still be persuaded to reconsider his role in supporting a Chinese government which is the main backer of the brutal Myanmar military. Mr. Spielberg won an Academy Award for 'Schindler's List', the story of Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who saved the lives of over one thousand Polish Jews during the Holocaust.

In the past few weeks the United States, the European Union, and Australia have imposed sanctions on Burma as the government continued to crack down on the monks and the people. Bridget Welsh, Southeast Asia expert at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, said that the experience in other countries has shown it was important to split the military as an institution. In this light, targeted sanctions might very well be the beginning of the end of cruel military dictatorship in Burma, as long as it does hit the intended bull's-eye.

(May Ng is from the Southern Shan State of Burma and a regional officer for Justice for Human Rights in Burma.)