Yearbook 2006
Burma. According to
CountryAAH, UN envoy Razali Ismail resigned in January after
not having been granted a visa to Burma in almost two years.
He had urged the outside world to subject the undemocratic
military junta to stronger pressure. Nigerian UN diplomat
Ibrahim Gambari was later allowed to meet isolated
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on two occasions. But
despite receiving a visit from a foreigner for the first
time in a couple of years, the junta in May extended her
house arrest by another year. The same fate hit her party
mate Tin Oo. Similarly, the junta continued to arrest and
imprison opposition activists.
In October, the long-standing negotiations for a new
constitution were resumed. The delegates are handpicked by
the junta and the goal of the talks is to give the military
a permanent grip on political power.
In the autumn, the UN Security Council raised the
situation in Burma for debate, which means that the
repression in the country is gaining more international
attention. In April it was reported that the army had
launched an offensive against the Kareen minority people.
According to human rights groups, around 2,700 villages in
eastern Burma were destroyed and up to 11,000 people were
displaced. The Karen people are one of the few ethnic
minorities that still opposes armed resistance to the
regime, since most other ethnic groups have been forced to
submit. The army offensive was described as the toughest in
nine years.
There are a few gaps in the isolation of Burma. The
President of India came on official visit in March and
signed an agreement on the purchase of natural gas. A gas
pipeline will be built to northeast India, possibly via
Bangladesh. A diplomatic success for Burma was also that the
think tank Financial Action Task Force praised the regime
for its progress in the fight against money laundering.
The government's political harassment did not subside in
the following months. During a celebration of the Armed
Forces in March 2000, Than Shwe declared that the opposition
would be "eliminated" if it threatened "the stability of the
country". At the same time, Than Shwe called for national
unity and for the partisans fighting at the border to sign a
ceasefire agreement "and quickly joined the army".
A demonstration against the military junta led to Suu Kyi
and several members of her party being placed under house
arrest. International protests prompted the military
government to deny that this move had been taken. Instead,
it stated that political leaders had "asked for permission
to stay in their homes" while allegations of terrorism in
the opposition party were being investigated. After a few
weeks, the military in September lifted restrictions on Suu
Kyi and reopened the phones to her home.
The head of intelligence, Major Khin Nyunt, visited
Thailand in September 2001, which he declared was an
improvement in bilateral conditions. He also stated that
Burma's fight against drugs would remove the country from
the so-called "Golden Triangle" by 2005. At the beginning of
the year, Burmese and Thai troops clashed at the border, and
the two countries had mutually accused each other of
supporting the Shan militia, there is a producer of opium.
By May, however, the relationship had improved as a result
of a growing number of North American Special Forces, whose
stated purpose was to train Thai forces in the fight against
drugs.
Since the university has been closed since 1988 in an
effort to prevent demonstrations facing the government,
doctors and other highly educated have not been trained
since. The number of Burmese people has therefore reached 1
million. and child mortality has reached 33%. Western
sources claim that the country's soldiers are no longer paid
in money but in drugs, and that the country's main source of
income is the illegal sale of opium.
In November 2001, Chinese President Jiang Zemin visited
the country - the first Chinese state visit since the
junta's takeover of power. In January 2002, the junta
announced that it would start building a nuclear power plant
with support from Russia. The US and the EU maintained that
they would not raise economic sanctions against the country
until there were certain signs of a democratization process.
After 19 months in uninterrupted house arrest, Suu Kyi
was released on May 6 and again allowed to participate in
political activities, which was interpreted as the beginning
of a democratic opening. The UN intervened as a mediator and
proposed as immediate steps the release of the country's
estimated 1500-2000 political prisoners. The US perceived
the opening as a result of the many years of embargo that
had a major impact on tourism and the country's trade in
oil, gas, timber and minerals. But the junta apparently did
not believe that its opening was offset from abroad, and in
April 2003 the EU decided to extend its austerity towards
the country. In May 2003, therefore, the junta again
tightened its course against the opposition: Suu Kyi was
detained and put in so-called "security detention"
indefinitely. At the same time, an NLD cortege was attacked,
at least 4 were killed and 130 disappeared. In July, 13
human rights activists were detained after handing a
complaint to authorities over the events in May. Amnesty
International expressed its dismay that the detainees were
subjected to torture and mistreatment by security forces.
A report by the United Nations Human Rights Commission in
December 2003 criticized the circumstances of the Special
Rapporteur's visit to Myanmar in March 2003, where evidence
was found of eavesdropping on the reporter's conversations
with inmates at the Insein prison. In its report, the
Commission condemned the occurrence of executions, the
soldiers' sexual assaults, the constant use of torture, the
detention of political causes, the confiscation of land and
the use of children for forced labor for the military. It
also criticized the lack of freedom for assembly,
association, utterance and movement. Young people,
especially young women under 25, are not allowed to leave
the country. At the same time, the Commission called on the
government to set up an independent judiciary, reinstate
democracy and approve the election results of 1990.
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