[burmanet2-l] IHT-Repressive Burma

[dawnstar@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: Re: [burmanet2-l] IHT-Repressive Burma

Apparently this is same, EDITORIAL, which ran in Washington Post this
week; ds


TIN KYI wrote:
> 
> International Herald Tribune
> Paris, Tuesday, July 6, 1999
> Repressive Burma
> Two years ago the Association of Southeast Asian Nations took in Burma as a
> member. This was a major diplomatic triumph for Burma, whose military rulers
> now call the country Myanmar, and helped ease the isolation it earned after
> it trashed an incipient democracy in 1990. ASEAN's logic was familiar:
> Engagement with the outside world would persuade Burma's dictators to relax
> their repressive rule.
> The verdict on this test case of the engagement theory thus far is clear:
> The behavior of the thugs who run Burma has worsened, and so has life for
> most Burmese.
> 
> The latest testimony comes from Amnesty International, which has issued
> three reports that detail the military regime's maltreatment of farmers and
> other civilians of minority ethnic groups in Burma's country-side. Hundreds
> of thousands have been forced from their homes, and many have been killed.
> Amnesty's interviews with refugees also confirmed that thousands have been
> forced into dangerous labor, among them many children.
> 
> Last month the International Labor Organization, a part of the United
> Nations, condemned Burma in extraordinarily harsh terms and by an
> overwhelming margin. Burma was essentially expelled from the group. The
> organization found that more than 800,000 people have been pressed into
> labor, which it described as ''nothing but a contemporary form of slavery.''
> 
> The person most qualified to speak of the success or failure of the
> engagement strategy is Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the political party
> that swept the 1990 elections, the results of which the regime refuses to
> honor. She says that repression of her party and arrests of its members have
> intensified this year. She of all people does not favor the isolation of the
> Burmese people, but she argues that any aid to Burma's generals only
> strengthens their corrupt rule to the detriment of the population.
> 
> ASEAN, many of whose members are themselves struggling toward increased
> democracy, soon may have to confront the failure of its engagement strategy
> in Burma.