BANGKOK - When the United Nations special envoy to Myanmar arrives in that Southeast Asian nation in early August, Myanmar watchers and exiles will look to see what pressure he puts on Yangon's military junta to end the flagrant attacks on the country's many ethnic groups.
Former Malaysian diplomat Razali Ismail's behind-the-scenes nudging is believed to have played a key, if quiet, role in the early May release from house arrest of Myanmese opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. Whether he can make some headway on the issue of the treatment of ethnic minorities, a sensitive matter for Yangon, remains uncertain.
Myanmar is an ethnically diverse country with more than 130 communities. While the Burmans are the largest group, seven others - the Chin, Kachin, Karen, Karenni, Mon, Rakhine and Shan - have sizable numbers in regions mostly along the country's borders.The idea of equality among all ethnic groups is supposedly a pillar of this country - a feature recognized in the 1947 Panglong Accord, the document that defined independent Burma, as the country was then known - but the Burman-dominated military regimes have failed to uphold it in practice.
But many nevertheless say it is time to push for progress in this area, especially in the light of reports by local and international rights lobbies about the extent of these rights violations and the upcoming meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on July 29-30.
"The fate of the ethnic nationalities has not figured in the talks Razali has held," said Soe Aung, a director at the Network for Democracy and Development, a group made up of exiled Myanmese.He said the reports by Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International (AI) and the local Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF), which cover the armed forces' operations against ethnic groups and minorities to quell dissent and insurgencies, "make it difficult for Razali to ignore them"."He should bring them up during the talks," Soe Aung said, urging an "inclusive approach" to restore democracy, peace and stability in Myanmar. "Democracy and the problems faced by ethnic nationalities have to be addressed together."
Razali should use his visit to pressure the government to stop the abuse of ethnic communities, said Srirak Plipat, head of Amnesty's Thailand office. "It is important, because there has been little international attention to these violations, and it is a way of showing that the international community is concerned."
Last Thursday, HRW drew attention to the violent attacks against Myanmar's Muslim minority. "The government has failed to take effective action to protect Muslims in Burma, imposed restrictions on Muslim religious activities and travel both inside the country and abroad, and taken no action to punish those responsible for destroying Muslim homes and mosques," the HRW study declares.In Arakan, a state with a predominantly Muslim population, abuse is "commonplace", including forced labor, destruction of mosques and restriction on freedom of movement, HRW charges in the report Crackdown on Burmese Muslims.
Two days before that, Amnesty accused Myanmar's armed forces, the Tatmadaw, of perpetrating attacks and abuse against members of seven other ethnic nationalities in Myanmar.The human-rights violations committed by the armed forces against civilians include "extrajudicial executions, torture, forced labor, land confiscation made in the context of violent threats and threatening demands for money and food," AI reveals in its report, Myanmar: Lack of Security in Counter-Insurgency Areas.The violations documented in the report occurred from early 2001 to early 2002 in the country's east, and affected ethnic groups such as the Mon, Karen, Akha, Shan and Palaung.
Prior to the HRW and AI reports, SHRF released a disturbing report that exposed the Myanmar's military use of rape as a weapon of war against the Shan community.There were "173 incidents of rape and other forms of sexual violence, involving 625 girls and women, committed by Burmese army troops in Shan state, mostly between 1996 and 2001", SHRF charged in a report released in mid-June.Raping Shan women appears to be "a concerted strategy by the Burmese army troops" as part of their anti-insurgency activities, it added. "Eighty-three percent of the rapes were committed by officers, usually in front of their own troops. The rapes involved extreme brutality and often torture such as beating, mutilation and suffocation," the SHRF report said.
Since October 2000, Razali has made seven visits to Myanmar to steer the UN-brokered reconciliation talks between the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), as the Myanmese government is known, and Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party.While Suu Kyi's release was greeted as a positive step in Myanmar's slow march toward more democracy after 40 years of military rule, there were those who said the country would have little to celebrate if its ethnic troubles went ignored.
For human-rights advocates such as Somchai Homlaor, the plight of Myanmar's ethnic communities needs to be addressed at a regional level, too - by ASEAN at its annual meeting of foreign ministers, to be held in Brunei this month. Myanmar is a member of this 10- nation group that also includes Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam.
"Human-rights violations in Burma are an ASEAN problem. The leaders have to take note of these reports," asserted Somchai, head of Forum Asia, a Bangkok-based regional human-rights watchdog. Yet he doubts if the persecuted communities in Myanmar can look to ASEAN for help, given its policy of non-interference in local disputes. The 35-year-old group has always been averse to discussing internal rights issues. While Myanmese activists and Suu Kyi have regularly made appeals to ASEAN in the past, it has traditionally shirked addressing the matter openly. Its statements generally encourage political dialogue in Myanmar, opting for quieter diplomacy in dealing with the junta.
But if, in fact, ASEAN does listen, Razali's visit will be pivotal in helping Myanmar's persecuted, said Somchai. "If his goal is to help build peace, he cannot ignore these human-rights violations. They matter." (Inter Press Service)