Nation: Women's NGOs, Burma's lates

[suriya@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: Nation: Women's NGOs, Burma's latest propaganda tool 

Editorial & Opinion 

Women's NGOs, Burma's latest propaganda tool

With Aung San Suu Kyi celebrating her birthday yesterday, a day designated
Burma Women's Day, Moe Aye looks at the endeavours of the generals' wives, who
are working to divert attention from the Nobel Peace Laureate. 

While intentional freedom fighters, activists and Burmese in exile around the
world celebrated the birthday of Aung San Suu Kyi yesterday, a day designated
''Burma Women's Day'', the majority of Burmese women are still in the kitchen
and busy with their daily toil. Meanwhile the junta's women's organisations
are
also busy in their own way, running their businesses and companies. 

Although Burmese in exile have the right to celebrate and show their feelings
freely and openly, women inside Burma have to keep their feelings to
themselves
and have no right even to send a greeting card to ''The Lady''. They do not
even have the right to say publicly that today is the birthday of Aung San Suu
Kyi. Except for the few NLD members who will have the right to join
celebrations at Daw Suu's house, any attempt to mark the event in public will
certainly result in a long prison term. 

Before this day began to be celebrated as Burma Women's day, the junta
oppressed and arrested anyone who marked it publicly, but since The Lady's
birthday became Burma Women's day outside Burma, the junta's attitude has
become even harsher. 

As women's issues are being raised around the world, the junta has been trying
to found many women's organisations in order to divert the attention of women
inside Burma. Now, there are many women's organisations inside Burma such as
the Myanmar Maternal and Child Welfare Association (MMCWA) and the Myanma
Women
Entrepreneurs' Association (MWEA), but all are led by the generals' wives. Lat
December the junta held the first Myanmar Women's Conference. Surprisingly the
main recommendation adopted at the conference was to open a Women's Bank
and to
promote the economic advancement of women in Myanmar. Nothing was said about
ethnic women being raped and killed by the junta's troops. 

Dr Khin Win Shwe, wife of Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt (Secretary-1 in the military
regime), recently said at a seminar on women's affairs in Rangoon that
participants must learn how to protect Burmese women from terrorists and
how to

rehabilitate them. 

Ma Aye Aye Mar, Central Executive Committee member of the Burma Women's Union
(BWU), an organisation founded by a group of female students on the Thai-Burma
border on Jan 7, 1995, responded: ''She should know first who is committing
these terrors, and as a woman she must learn the causes of the abuse of
women's
rights. She does not need to go away to learn about this. She could just ask
her husband, Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt, why the army continues to commit crimes
against
ethnic women like a bloodthirsty beast. Why does the MWEA and the Myanmar
National Committee for Women's Affairs exclude women who are involved in
politics and who seek safety on the Thai-Burma border? Is raping and killing
their own ethnic women their 'protection programme' for women? Is keeping away
from politics the Burmese way to women's rights?'' 

Her questions highlight the situation of Burmese women and the so-called
women's NGOs founded by the military regime. In 1994 Ma Tin Tin Nyo, a
prominent young female student leader, committed suicide after being releaased
from the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) interrogation centre. Nobody yet
knows why she did so. According to former women political prisoners, however,
all were sexually abused by the MIS. A female Western diplomat in Rangoon also
said: ''Although women around the rest of the world are speaking out loudly
for
women's rights, the junta's Myanmar Women Entrepreneurs Association talks only
about 'protection programmes for women'. You can clearly see that in their
organisations' aims and objectives the terms 'women's rights' and 'politics'
are absent. I think political reform will come very slowly''. 

The junta always claims that it recognises the crucial role of women in
society
and thus a national machinery, namely the Myanmar National Committee for
Women's Affairs, was established on July 3, 1996. Activities related to the
development of women are now said to be carried out in Burma with added
momentum under the umbrella of a national-level committee for women. Moreover,
the junta boasts that there are many women's social organisations and that the
MWEA is one of the leading organisations. 

Its claims, however, cause many Burmese women some amusement. All women's
organisations, including the MWEA, are headed by the wives of top junta
members, and their leadership is largely a spousal mirror of the junta's
military and political chain of command. All members of the MWEA have to
donate
10,000 kyat for life-membership fees and 1,200 kyat for monthly fees, in a
country where the monthly salary for high-school teachers is only 1,200 kyat.
What's more, certain people, especially those who support Aung San Suu Kyi and
her NLD, cannot join those so-called women's organisations. Worse, the MWEA
and
its branches ignore the lives of ethnic women on the Thai-Burma border. Many
women whose husbands and loved ones are jailed for their involvement in
politics are struggling very hard to take care of their families, but they are
also excluded from the junta's women's organisations. 


If the MWEA and the Myanmar National Committee for Women's Affairs are
concerned about their own women and want to protect them from terrorists, the
question of why they are silent about the ethnic women who are being raped and
killed by the military needs to be answered. 

If those organisations are independent NGOs, the question why they dare not
grant membership to women who support the democracy movement and the NLD needs
to be answered. While women around the world demand to have reasonable equal
rights, the MWEA and the Myanmar National Committee for Women's Affairs
counsel
Burmese women to follow and respect their husbands and to concentrate on
increasing their income instead of thinking about politics. Whenever they hold
small seminars in rural areas, they proclaim that politics is not the business
of Burmese women. The seminars, supposedly for the education of women who live
in rural areas, end by criticising and denouncing Aung San Suu Kyi and her
NLD.


In reality all women's organisations are set up by the military, not to
concentrate on women's issues but to push women out of politics. While women's
issues are being discussed around the world, the big problem for the military
regime is that the strongest and most daring opponent of the regime in
Burma is
a woman, who is also a Nobel Peace laureate. Another problem is that the
birthday of Aung San Suu Kyi has become Burma Women's Day. On the one hand
they
claim that women cannot govern the country, while on the other they try to
show
the international community that they are committed to dealing with women's
issues, by organising so-called women's NGOs led by their wives. 

Recently Dr Cynthia Maung, who ministers to 20,000 refugees fleeing Burma's
version of ethnic cleansing, became the first recipient of the Jonathan Mann
Award. International medical associations, international bodies and activists
refer to her as the ''Mother Theresa of Burma''. 

The junta, however, snubbed the commendation, claiming it was orchestrated by
the West. Instead of acknowledging the honour of having two Burmese women as
winners of the Nobel Peace Prize and the Jonathan Mann Award, the junta
denigrates those who have recognised these two great ladies for dedicating
their lives to helping their people. The junta's women's organisations have
also been silent. 

Women inside Burma face great hardship. Ethnic women in particular are no
strangers to 
terror and extreme abuse. The junta's supposed women's NGOs have revealed that
they are simply a propaganda tool of the junta, incapable of addressing the
very serious issues faced by millions of women inside Burma. The international
community must not allow itself to be taken in by this facade. A basic
requirement of any NGO inside Burma is that it be independent of the junta. 
------------- 

Moe Aye is a correspondent fpr the Democratic Voice of Burma, a Radio station
based in Oslo.