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DBSO's Letter to President Clinton
- Subject: DBSO's Letter to President Clinton
- From: aung@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 04 Feb 1995 16:04:00
Democratic Burmese Students' Organization (USA)
P.O.Box 91, Rockville, MD 20851
Tel.(301)217-0356, Fax.(301)770-7416; email: freeburma@xxxxxxx
President Bill Clinton
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500
February 2, 1995
Dear Mr. President:
With this letter, we, Burmese students in the US, would like to express
our great concern about the recent developments in the national conflict of our
native country. As you are much aware, last week the military junta of Burma
has again broken its much publicized promise to seek internal peace through
peaceful means by launching heavy offensives against Manerplaw, the headquarter
of Karen ethnic people. Many people died and a total of 15.000 people had to
flee to nearby Thailand.
Last year, the military junta of Burma repeatedly assured the
international community that it would peacefully resolve its differences with
ethnic minorities. Even in the UN General Assembly, Ohn Kyaw, the foreign
minister of Burma, publicly reiterated his government's plan to bring about
cease-fires with ethnic groups. True to its nature, the military elite has
once again broken its promise blatantly.
Since the time of its independence in 1948, Burma has been ravaged by
a multiethnic insurgency against the Rangoon government. Successive military
governments have unsuccessfully attempted to solve this problem by military
means. Time and again, ethnic groups have tried in vain to come to a
negotiation table with the ruling elite. After realizing that national
reconciliation cannot be achieved by any other means than negotiation, the
present military government of Burma, namely the State Law and Order
Restoration Council, began to utter its desire to have a dialog with the
ethnic peoples.
Toward this end, many parties in conflict including the Karen have
worked to have a dialog with the SLORC. The military junta itself repeatedly
promised to use peaceful means to resolve the national conflict. However, last
week's attacks on the Karen people is clearly a despicable bleach of promise.
So far about 15,000 people have fled to Thailand to seek refuge there.
These people are victims of over-40-year-long civil war between the Rangoon
government and the Karen people. Now they are in urgent need of shelter, food,
and medicines. Besides, their life is precarious in the hands of Thai
authorities who have business links with the ruling military junta of Burma.
Since mistreatment of refugees along the Thai-Burmese border is widespread,
the presence of international human rights groups and relief agencies is a
necessity.
Therefore, we would like to request you to urge the Thai government to
provide asylum to those people who have fled the battles and to assist
international relief workers in their work. And we also would like you to call
on the military junta of Burma to halt attacks on the ethnic people and to
resolve the national conflict only by peaceful means.
Sincerely,
(Signed) (Signed)
Yin Aye Shwe Sin Htun
Representative (East Coast) Representative (East Coast)
DBSO (USA) DBSO (USA)
Cc: U.S. Secretary of State
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia & Pacific