Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's video address
to the 53rd session of the United Nations
Human Rights Commission,
The leader of the
National League for Democracy in Burma and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San
Suu Kyi, smuggled out an address to the 53rd session of the UN Convention on
Human Rights.
*1. I would like start
by asking your views on the increasing restrictions placed on you and your MPs?
When I talk of Human Rights violations in
And the restrictions placed on members of the NLD and
supporters of the NLD are really excessive.
Its not just that we are prevented from doing
our political work, the families of supporters are subjected to a lot of
economic pressure. There's interference
with their economic activities and even with educational activities.
There are those who have been threatened that if their
parents don't tow the line they will lose their jobs, or that they will not be
allowed to take certain examinations.
Now whether the threats will be carried out I don't know.
Threats have been made and in some cases people have been penalised because of their connections to members of the
NLD, supporters of the NLD.
Now at the moment a lot of our members of parliament have
been forced to resign. They have been forced to resign through pressure on
their families. Some have refused to
resign.
One of our members of parliament has been made to leave his
state home apartment, where he had lived for years because he refused to resign
from the NLD.
And there are at the moment a number of cases pending, a
number of trumped up cases against members of parliament from the NLD.
Now the latest case which I think was of considerable
interest because of his connections to General Khin Nyunt was that of Doctor Than Nyein who was arrested on the
grounds that he had treated patients in his consultation room before the
license had been issued properly. He was released I understand yesterday and
only fined a thousand kyats. Now this of course is very unusual. I've not heard of members of the NLD who ever
got away without some sort of prison sentence.
I don't know whether Doctor Than Nyein has got away with it because so many people have been
speculating on why he was arrested.
There were those who said that his arrest indicated that
Khin Nyunt's grip on power was slipping.
And perhaps because of these comments the authorities felt that it would
be politic to let him of lightly. But if
he's let of lightly then others in a similar situation should be let of lightly
too.
There's a case of another NLD doctor who was, I think,
charged with culpable homicide, because a patient who was dying in any case,
and whom he treated with an injection to enable the patient to reach the
hospital, died on the way to hospital. I
understand that they have now changed the charge because that wouldn't
stick.
But when they performed the autopsy they found that the
patient hardly had any lungs left.
Almost all the whole of his lungs had been eaten away by
tuberculosis. So they could only conclude
that he was going to die anyway.
But I understand that now they are trying to change the
charge and make it one similar to that with which they charged Doctor Than Nyein, giving treatment in a
consultation room without a proper licence.
Now most doctors in
So they use the rules and regulations, they use the law as
they like in order to restrict the NLD, in order to stop people from working
effectively for the democracy movement.
My own road, the road to my house has been blocked off now
for three months. It started, the first time they blocked it was in September
but then that was on and off they would open it occasionally then they would
block it off again.
But it's been blocked of completely since the 3rd of
December. So that makes it three months
now, about three months tomorrow exactly.
And this of course is meant to stop us from carrying on our
NLD activities in my home.
And every time people come to see me they have to get
permission from the authorities.
And when Burmese people come to see me they are asked for
their national registration certificate.
And sometimes they are kept waiting at the road block for a long
time.
And as for people from abroad, especially journalists,
sometimes they are just not allowed in at all.
Although the people at the barricades were informed that so
and so would be coming, if they feel that they don't want to let a certain
person through they don't let that person through. They have done this to journalists and to diplomats
as well.
So this is again a form of harassment. A way of trying to restrict
the activities of the National League for Democracy.
I would like to make the point that the NLD is not just a
political party. It represents a whole democratic movement in
There are of course some ethnic nationalities' parties, but
they are rather small, and they don't operate on a national basis, they only
operate in their own areas. Well which
leaves the NLD as the only political party that operates throughout the country
and that represents
the movement for democracy.
So restricting the NLD is tantamount to crushing democracy.
I would like to remind the international community of the
fact that the General Assembly Resolution calls for an early restoration of
democracy to
That resolution also calls for the full and free
participation of the
Burmese people in the political process of the country. Again that needs to be implemented.
Our political rights are getting fewer and fewer by the
day. There are more restrictions, more
repression, the
authorities seem determined to crush any kind of political movement.
They have, as I am sure many of you will have heard, they
have built up a so called social welfare organisation called the Union
Solidarity and Development Association, the USDA. Which they are using,
occasionally as a political arm and occasionally as just a gang of thugs, to
harass and intimidate those who are working for democracy.
In November it was members of the USDA who attacked the cars
in which U Kyi Maung and U Tin Oo and I were travelling. So I have no inhibitions in saying that the
USDA more than occasionally performs the work of mere thugs. Then this is not the way in which a
responsible government should behave. A
responsible government does not build up a gang of hooligans to attack those
whom it wishes to crush politically.
Ours is a non violent political movement. But however non violent it may be, a
political movement should be allowed to demonstrate its opposition to certain
government policies, if it thinks it is right to do so.
And there are many policies of the government which we are
obliged to oppose because these policies are aimed at crushing the movement for
democracy.
Because we are obliged to speak up against such government
policies as are unjust and repressive we should not be treated like
criminals. Our people are treated worse
than criminals, because the families of criminals are not penalised.
If a man has committed a crime, whether it's murder, or robbery, or
assault, he is punished. His family, his
family members are not punished. But in
our case members, family members of the National League for Democracy, families
of members of the National League for Democracy are heavily penalised. Often very heavily penalised.
So the present situation is such that we need maximum
attention on what is happening to the National League for Democracy, how this
government is treating members of the National League for Democracy. Because that is an indication of the degree
to which the authorities are prepared to go to prevent democracy from taking
root in
And therefore that is in direct opposition to the spirit, as
well as the terms, of the General Assembly Resolution.
*2. Can you tell me
your views on the religious unrest that's been happening recently?
As I understand it, the unrest began in
And about the same time the problems with the Muslim
community started. And there are those
who speculate that this was intended to distract attention from what had
happened to the Mahamunni image. I don't know how true this is, but I can say
that the present problems between the Muslim communities and
the Buddhist monks does not do our country any good at all.
And of course the authorities, as you can imagine, would like to blame
the whole thing on the NLD. They try to
blame everything on NLD. According to
the authorities it's the NLD
who always decides what happens in the country. If we are so very powerful we might as well
take over power completely.
The present situation seems to be under control, I think
there are probably certain places in
The real source, the real reason behind this, is I think
social unrest.
When there is communal strife any where it is due to social
unrest. Social unrest of course is
related to such factors as political dissatisfaction and economic
problems.
So we can't just isolate the problems between the Buddhist
monks and the Muslims and say well there is trouble there. There is trouble through out the
country. It's just a symptom of the
general, general malaise that you will find in
I really hope that the situation will be resolved soon
because we want
*3. What about the
situation on the Thai /
Yes and we are very concerned about this. We really want the international community to
help the refugees as far as possible.
And we would like the Thai authorities to look on these refugees
with compassion and not to force them to return back to their homes where there
is no security.
Again, of course, the reason why there is
so many refugees is because the cease fire between the KNU and the military
government has broken down. And this is
another indication of the unstable political situation of
SLORC has been claiming that it has achieved cease fires, it has been able to
bring peace to the border. Well
obviously this is not so.
Cease fires do not mean peace, they
do not mean long term peace at all. Cease fires simply mean that you stop
shooting at each other for a certain length of time. You still keep your guns at the ready. Which means that you can
start shooting any time you think that it's no longer either wise or possible
to continue with the ceasefire.
We are very concerned about the situation of our ethnic
nationalities. Of course people know
about these refugees. But we understand
that on this side of the border there are many many
villages, Karens, of Karens
and other ethnic nationalities where the people are subjected to a lot of
persecution, repression, forced porterage, torture,
and I am told, even summary execution.
So the situation is not good. With regard to the refugees we really hope
that the UNHCR will be allowed to help them.
And that the international community will provide as much support for
them as possible.
*4.What is your
assessment of the current situation of human rights abuses in
Bad! As I said
earlier, one does not think in terms of which human rights have been
violated. One thinks in terms of which
human rights have not been violated. And one sometimes comes to the conclusion that are no rights which have not been violated.
Forced labour is a daily business. And children are made to provide forced
labour because often the parents can't take time off to go and work on these
forced labour projects. The economic
situation is bad.
The standards of living of a lot of people have fallen. And there is a struggle in order to be able
to eat two full meals a day.
So if the parents have to go and work on
forced labour projects where they are not paid, it means that the family can
not eat for the day. Consequently
they sent children out to work on the project while the parents go out to earn
money.
And of course there are also children on construction sites
now that is not forced labour, but that again is due to economic pressure. In a number of families they cannot make ends
meet unless the children work as well.
You can find this if you study the records of UNICEF with
regard to children in primary schools.
The dropout rate of children in primary schools has been rising.
This is primarily due to the poverty of family, either they
cannot afford to send the children to school, because they cannot clothe them
properly, or they cannot give all these
Well education is supposed to be free but actually you are made to
contribute to this event and that event, and this bit of school equipment and
that bit of school furniture and so on.
So because they cannot afford to pay these charges, or because they need the children to help them earn
more money for the family, parents take their children away before they've
completed primary school, and the dropout rate is therefore rising. So child rights in
*5.In terms of the
current situation, how do you see the international communities' obligations at
this time?
The main obligation of the international community is to do
every thing it can to implement the terms of the General Assembly
resolution. As I said earlier it is a
good resolution but it shouldn't just remain on paper, it needs to be
implemented.
And since it was passed unanimously I think the
international community does have an obligation to try to implement its
terms. To take it seriously, not just to
regard it as a piece of paper.
I would like to call for a strong resolution on the human
rights situation in
As I said earlier, there are hardly any human rights which
have not been violated by this military regime.
And we need strong action from the international community to put an end
to these constant violations of basic human rights.
We would like the Human Rights Resolution to address very
particularly, the
question of political rights, as well as the right of people to be free from
such pressures as forced labour, forced relocation. And we would also like the Resolution to
address the question of the refugees. I
think these are the three main points that we would like addressed.
That political rights should be
enjoyed by all of us and particularly by members of the National League for
Democracy. Not because this is my party
but because, as I have already said, it represents the movement for democracy
in
And we would really like the question of forced labour and
forced relocation to be addressed very seriously, because that disrupts the
lives of families, it causes ill health, it also, it
even causes death in some cases.
And of course the refugee problem. The refugee problem ultimately is an off
shoot of the political problem.
If there were political stability in Burma, if there were a
democratic system that allowed people to express their hopes, their fears,
their aspirations, their difficulties, their resentments, through a legal
channel there would not be all this problem of refugees. There would not be this problem of
insurgencies. People take to arms
because they feel there is no other way in which they can resolve their
problems.
If there were a system which allowed them to solve their
problems politically, rather than militarily, I think you would find that peace
will come back to
Which is why I put the political rights of the National
League for Democracy and others working for democracy in Burma as the most
important item on the agenda for the Human Rights Commission.
We would also like to make sure that the Special Rapporteur
of the United Nations Secretary General is allowed to come in to
And we think that the idea of having a group of people to monitor
the human rights situation in