Rights letters urge British PM to lead world action on Burma

Monday, 09 August 2010 21:09 Kyaw Mya

New Delhi (Mizzima) - A British Burma rights advocacy has called on the government of the recently elected British prime minister to take the lead in pushing for stronger and more effective international action on Burma, with more than a thousand letters from staff, volunteers and supporters, the rights group said.

Burma Campaign UK representatives last Wednesday hand-delivered the 1,657 letters from British supporters of democracy in Burma to 10 Downing Street, the official residence of British Prime Minister David Cameron, and the headquarters of the current government.

The delivery was made by international co-ordinator Zoya Phan, and other campaigners Seng Pan, Mary Hla, Than Than Soe and Jacqueline San at 10.30 a.m. British time, a rights group statement said.

“Altogether, there were 1, 657 letters, all individually written … by members of the public of the United Kingdom who support the democracy movement in Burma,” Seng Pan said. “They wrote to the prime minister asking his support and to take action on Burma.”

The rights group recently urged the youngest British prime minister, and Foreign Secretary William Hague, to raise Burmese issues during their three-day visit to India.

The supporters of Burma Campaign UK wrote urging Cameron to take the lead in pushing for stronger and effective international action on Burma over the military regime’s international human rights violations, which have continued since the junta took power in a military coup in 1962.

More than 2,100 political prisoners, including Novel Peace Prize-winner Aung San Suu Kyi, are currently detained by the Burmese military government, almost all on spurious charges or the subject of laws specifically targeting pro-democracy activists or opposition party members.

Suu Kyi, leader of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party that won a landslide victory in nationwide elections in 1990, has spent much of the past 20 years in jail or under house arrest. She is barred from standing in this year’s elections by the junta’s electoral laws because she is a serving prisoner.

The letters sought “to ask the prime minister to prioritise and take the lead on Burma, pushing for stronger international action … we want him to push for united UN-led efforts to secure dialogue between the dictatorship, and Aung San Suu Kyi and ethnic groups, and to push for a commission of inquiry into war crimes and crimes against humanity, and for a global arms embargo” Burma Campaign UK director Mark Farmaner told Mizzima.

The letters were timed four days ahead of the 22nd anniversary of the 1988 democracy uprisings in Burma yesterday. In 1988, the junta ordered a brutal crackdown in which thousands of pro-democracy protesters were killed, many were arrested and many were forced to flee the country.

The rights group urged the British government to take the following actions: build support for a global consensus for a United Nations arms embargo against Burma; persuade European Union partners to support a UN commission of inquiry into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma; work to build international support for a UN-led process persuading the dictatorship to enter into genuine dialogue with Burma’s democracy movement and ethnic groups; maintain planned increases of aid to Burma; and, increase cross-border humanitarian aid for internally displaced people.

“So far the new prime minister, David Cameron, has spoken out about Burma and had been raising Burma internationally, so we are hopeful that he will continue to do so and to do more, so it’s good when he went to meet [UN Secretary General] Ban Ki-moon he talked about Burma; when he went to India he talks about Burma so it’s a good sign to build on that,” Farmaner said.

Campaigner Mary Hla said in the advocacy group’s statement: “David Cameron has already shown that he sees Burma as a priority,” adding that, “we hope he will take the lead in building support for practical steps.”

“When he goes to the UN General Assembly in September he has the opportunity to push for them [assembly members] to establish a commission of inquiry into [the junta’s] war crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma,” she said in the statement.

Mizzima made repeated calls to No. 10 for a response to the letter campaign and none were returned as the prime minister’s staff had promised.

Britain is one of the strongest supporters of political reform in Burma along with Canada, the EU, Australia and the United States. It has imposed financial and travel sanctions against the military regime and has been pushing for a global arms embargo. It is also a stronger supporter with Australia for a UN commission of inquiry into the Burmese dictatorships’ numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity, among many other human rights abuses.