UN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS

60^TH SESSION

March-April 2004

US statement on the Burma resolution

April 21, 2004

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

The United States is pleased to co-sponsor this resolution on the human rights situation in Burma. We appreciate the European Union's efforts to accommodate many of our concerns in the final text.

The United States continues to work to promote democracy and improved human rights in Burma. We are unwavering in our support of the establishment of democracy in Burma. We remain gravely concerned by the collapse of the tentative process of national reconciliation that had begun in 2000. We deplore the unlawful imprisonment of Aung San Suu Kyi and U Tin Oo following the regimes May 30, 2003 violent attack on the National League for Democracy (NLD) convoy in northern Burma. That attack left people dead, injured and missing. We call for the immediate and unconditional release from house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi and U Tin Oo, and that of their supporters detained after the May 30 incident.

Burma's State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) continues to rule by decree, controls the judiciary, suppresses basic rights and commits human rights abuses with impunity. Government authorities have jailed many NLD leaders, pressured thousands of party members to resign, closed party offices, and periodically detained hundreds of NLD members at a time. While the NLD is the major opposition party, there are more than 20 ethnic political parties that are suppressed by the government, A number of monks have been imprisoned for their pro- democracy work.

Press freedom in Burma is restricted. Private periodicals are subject to prepublication censorship. The importation of foreign news periodicals are restricted. The government owns or tightly controls all newspapers, radio stations and television. Many journalists and writers are in jail.

Teachers are subject to restrictions on freedom of expression and publication. They are held accountable for the political activities of their students. Freedoms of association and assembly are restricted. Independent trade unions, collective bargaining, and strikes are illegal. In Burma, a number of labor activist are serving long prison terms for their labor and political activities. Administrative detention laws allow people to be held without charge, trial, or access to legal counsel for up to five years. There are also reports of torture and inhuman prison conditions. Dozens of political prisoners have died in custody. And, according to Amnesty International, more than 1.300 political prisoners remain in Burmese jails.

We welcome the recent reopening of the National League for Democracy's headquarters in Rangoon. We also welcome the releases of U Lwin and U Aung Shwe. We hope that this leads to further progress toward national reconciliation in Burma. For a constitutional convention to be successful, however, the political opposition and ethnic groups must support it and must be involved in preparations for it as well as be full participants in the Convention itself to allow a free exchange of views. Aung San Suu Kyi and other NLD leaders must be released so that they can participate fully in any preparations for national reconciliation and democracy. In addition, the Burmese government should also articulate a timetable leading to the establishment of democracy in Burma.

We remain deeply troubled by the Burmese military's abuse of ethnic minority civilians including arbitrary detention, rapes, torture, murder, forced relocations, and confiscation of property. The worst human rights abuses are reported to take place in Burma's seven ethnic minority dominated states. In those areas, in addition to other abuses, soldiers routinely destroy property, and seize livestock and other property from villages. Tens of thousands of ethnic minorities in Shan Karenni, Karen, and Mon states and Tenasserim Division live in deplorable conditions in relocation camps. Reportedly, 1.5 million people have been internally displaced and several million Burmese have fled to neighboring countries.

The government continues to restrict freedom of religion, coercively promote Buddhism over other religions, and impose restrictions on religious minorities, especially ethnic Rohingya Muslims and Chin, Kachin, Karen and Naga Christians. We designated Burma as a "Country of Particular Concern" in 2003 for its particularly severe violations of religious freedom.

We continue to encourage the international community, especially Asian countries, to increase their engagement with the Burmese government on these issues. We also urge the government to continue to cooperate with the UN Special Rapporteurs and Special Mechanisms. We continue to support UN Special Rapporteur Pinheiro's call for an investigation into the May 30 attack at Depeyin and the egregious human rights abuses against ethnic minorities.

We should not, we cannot abandon the brave freedom fighters in Burma.

Thank you, Mr, Chairman.