Under George W. Bush and Condoleeza Rice, U.S. foreign policy today emphasizes the right to live in free, democratic societies, The United States actively promotes that ideal with American money, influence and lives. In 1787, after risking his life to establish democracy in his own country, Thomas Jefferson noted, “the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” Jefferson, like many others who have fought for freedom, understood that freedom is something precious and rare, which will always be attacked by those seeking power for their own ends.
We hear almost nothing from the major media about heroes risking their lives for freedom. But they exist. This article inaugurates a series highlighting under-recognized freedom-fighters from countries around the world.
To the citizens of Burma, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is akin to Ghandi or Nelson Mandela. Miss Suu Kyi was born into fame in 1945 as the daughter of General Aung San, who lead Burma’s fight for independence from Britain in the 1940s. After growing up in Burma, she lived and worked all over the world before returning in 1988 to care for her aging mother.
Suu Kyi arrived in Burma as growing discontent simmered under the “socialist” regime of General Ne Win. She witnessed first-hand the smothering of Burma’s infant democracy movement when a military coup seized power in 1988 and killed thousands of pro-democracy advocates. At that time, military generals began calling the country Myanmar, an unpopular move not approved by any legislature and unrecognized by the U.S. Undeterred, Suu Kyi continued to campaign for freedom as the head of the National League for Democracy (NLD).
Although taken at gunpoint and placed under house arrest in 1989, Suu Kyi’s party won an overwhelming 80% of the popular vote in national legislative elections held in 1990. The military junta promptly annulled the results and Suu Kyi remained under arrest, but was now joined by several of her fellow pro-democracy leaders. Overcoming the restrictions of her detention, under which Suu Kyi is denied access to telephones, radio, television, and even newspapers, she continued to advocate democracy in her homeland, for which she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.
Suu Kyi remained under house arrest through July 1995, again from September 2000 to May 2002, and most recently (after being beaten up during a government attack on her convoy) from June 2003 until today. The junta has extended her indefinite detention through at least December 2005.
Meanwhile, Burma’s ruling generals have supervised the wreck of the country. In February, Paula Dobriansky (Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs) summarized the human rights situation in Burma, noting “security forces continue to torture prisoners, commit rape and engage in extrajudicial killings. The junta monitors the communications of its citizens and searches their homes without warrants. The junta also forcibly relocates large ethnic minority populations, confiscates land and property, uses forced labor and conscripts child soldiers.” More than 2700 villages have been destroyed since 1996, and more than 70,000 child soldiers have been forcibly enlisted by the regime.
Today, the government holds over 1,000 political prisoners, 43 of whom were arrested in 2004. Despite very fertile soil and significant offshore oil and gas deposits, government economic mismanagement has led the country into poverty. GDP growth for 2004 is estimated at roughly -1.3% by the US government and supply shortages are common. Most banks are still shut down after a banking crisis in 2003, leaving the private sector with hardly any access to credit. According to a 2002 UN report, the average household spends 70% of its budget on food; and an estimated 75% of the country’s population live below the poverty line.
Burma is the world’s second-largest producer of both heroin and of illicit opium, spreading HIV strains to neighboring countries through the illegal export. The junta wages active war on ethnic minorities living in border regions. Analysts estimate that up to 10,000 people a year are killed in these regions, and are certain that more than 700,000 refugees have fled the country in recent years.
The dictators seem incapable of doing anything successfully except hanging on to power, and their 15-year reign has been riddled by shocking misperceptions and internal contradictions. In 1990, the generals foolishly believed they could garner enough internal support to win free elections. Adding to the public embarrassment of their defeat, even much of the army voted for Suu Kyi and the NLD. (The NLD now leads a coalition of opposition forces in running a government in exile.)
Still, the junta was caught by surprise when Suu Kyi attracted such large crowds upon her release in 2002 that they found it necessary to arrest her again and throw her in prison. Briefly in 2004 Prime Minister Khin Nyunt spoke of negotiating with the NLD, but was quickly ousted by the military. The junta won’t admit a U.N. envoy sent to aid the dialogue.
In 2003, under international pressure including some of the first criticisms by neighboring Southeast Asian countries and first-time sanctions by Japan, the junta produced a seven-point “road map” to democracy. The “road map”, of course, has been the usual sham calculated to give foreign powers like Russia and China an excuse to continue ignoring the hard truth about Burma’s military dictators.
The generals have recently completed a new constitution solidifying the junta’s iron grip on power, reserving a large number of seats in the national and regional parliaments for the army and barring Miss Suu Kyi from ever becoming president. The whole document was drawn up without any input from the NLD or any opposition party, with whom the junta refuses to negotiate. After arranging uneasy ceasefires with 17 ethnic minority groups, the junta arrested a number of the leaders of these groups. Over the past 15 years the size of the army has more than doubled and it has acquired updated weapons, thanks to government use of gas export revenues and spending 29% of the budget on the military (compared to 3% for health and 8% for education). Meanwhile, ethnic minority groups are finding it harder to arm themselves against government attacks as improved Burmese relations with India and Thailand cut off their past support from those nations.
How is the international community responding to the trampling of freedom in Burma?
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) finally seems to be altering, slightly, its policy of “engagement” with the regime. For years it invested in Burma’s energy sector and maintained normal diplomatic relations which included everything from trade to cultural exchanges. After fifteen years of no progress, the ASEAN are beginning to voice timid criticisms, this summer persuading Burma to forego its turn as chair of the association in 2006.
It’s business as usual for China, which continues to buy oil, gas, and other products from Burma, and gains a site for its only military base on the Indian Ocean.
The U.S. instituted the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act in 2003, banning the import of all Burmese products, prohibiting the export of financial services, and emplacing a targeted asset freeze, and visa restrictions against the junta and its popular organization, the United Solidarity Development Association.
The U.N. has filed a 70-page report on Burma calling for multilateral action to bring about democratic changes in the country. The U.S. first attempted in June to bring the issue before the National Security Council, only to be vetoed by China and Russia. The U.S. will attempt again in October, but faces another likely veto by Russia and China.
Seeing that the United Nations has reached a stalemate, hindered once again by countries with no interest in liberty and human rights, Suu Kyi and her supporters will most likely have to win their freedom fight on their own. The odds seem very long against them, but astonishing things seem to happen when enough people care enough to risk their lives for freedom. Remember 1776?