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FuruteWork and Burma........



"lambrcht@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" "Curtis W Lambrecht" on April 6 wrote:

>Do you have any thoughts on the rights of the "Burma-born" Rohingya and 
>their denied rights to citizenship? 	
	*Their genuine rights to become Burmese citizen should not be denied by
any law since they are born in Burma. 
>I agree with you that those who are complicitous to SLORC abuses should 
>someday "face the law".  I would remind you, however, that a lot of the 
>"blood sucking", and "cooperation with the SLORC", is done by Burmese 
>(Burmans and ethnic minorities).  I suspect that there are quite a few 
>businessmen, who are not in the military, who have profited substantialy 
>as a result of their relationships with the military.  Do these people 
>deserve any less condemnation than the Chinese or Thai nationals? 

	* I appreciate your questiona and thank you for asking this question. 
My personal answer to your question is: They deserve the same as those people 
who suck the blood of ordinary citizens of Burma. All of those people (whoever) 
have to face the laws of democratic Burma when laws in democratic Burma will be
drawn by the consent of people.

>What about the low ranking soldiers who are responsible for human rights 
>abuses in Rangoon, and the ethnic states?  Will these people someday face 
>justice?  Given the egregious abuses that the SLORC armed forces have 
>already committed, is it morally suspect to even belong to these groups, 
>on any level?  It is a difficult issue. 

	*You are right. It is very difficult issue. But I can give you a clue
that is: Please read the book called "Eichmann in Jerusalem" by well-known
author Hannah Arendt and "A Miracle, a Universe" by another well-know
journalist Lawrencw Weschler. I strongly suggest you to read those.  Both of
these books deal with the problem to search the "Justice by facts" not the
"Justice by Laws."  The first one is the former Nazi being prosecued by State
of Israel upon the crime that German committed genocide in WWII. The second one
is about how to deal with former torturers in the case of Brazil and Uruguay.
These two books will give you the direction "brain-storming" to think the
situation of Future Burma to search for "true justice"  

>Do you see any danger in classifying "Chinese " or "Thai" as a 
>nationality or ethnic group, as being culpable for the human rights abuses?  
	I saw it for sure. It is unlucky problem of those victims of the whole
institution of Burma. But to find the truth and justice, you have to find out 
cases. Where are those cases existed? Deserving and qualifying is different. If
I say the following it might lead another direction, but let me say just for
this situition. The following is a metaphor:
	Think you are a citizen of country A, I am from B. Your country has the
same situation like Burma now. While you and your fellow citizens are
struggling to get rid of the oppressive regime, I come to your country and take
the chance to own land, and sell the goods that I can trade from wherever to
the citizens of yours. Finally I own half of your country's land and property.
Your revolution is finished and I become the richest guy in your country. The
property I have now are maybe fairly maybe not. Not only me some of your fellow
citizens who somewhat support oppressive regime or cooperate with it also the 
same way they own property now.  You finally found that the way we earned 
those property are not just and even hurt the whole generation of ordinary 
citizens. I migrated to your country without any political reson from my
country. I migrated to your country because I saw that I could make myself rich
and it is easy to get citizenship because I just have to pay money to those
military generals. I am a citizen of your country now. But was not born in your 
country I migrated to your country illegally. But now a lawful (legal) citizen.
What will you do in this situation? What will you accuse me of? 

>Mightn't this be construed as, or lead to, xenophobia?  The people who are 
>complicitous to the abuses are individuals, maybe even government officials,
>but they are not necessarilly represenatative of the entire population of 
>Chinese or Thai. 
	I do not mean to generalize all. We have to find case by case. Not
by generalizing it. But for foreign immigrants like in above metaphor, the
controversial cases will be solved by the wisdom of citizens of democratic 
Burma. My personal opinion is that you have to show the truth. Xenophobia? It
will be clear when they answer the case in the above metaphor. If they don't
lie themselves.
 
>Curt
	*You have asked great questions. My answer may not satisfy you now. But
one day, people will decide upon those issues. We are just now catalizing our
brain and looking for the answer for those.
	Thanks
	Wish you be healthy and happy......
	Tun Myint
	Indiana University