Britain condemns closure of NLD and ethnic parties, calls election ‘a sham’

Saturday, 18 September 2010 00:29 Khaing Kyaw Mya

New Delhi (Mizzima) - British Foreign Secretary William Hague has condemned the November 7 Burmese election, calling it “a sham” designed to keep the military regime in power, even after the polls.



Moe_Bu_Zoya_PhanHis comments were welcomed by the London-based National League for Democracy (Liberated Area-UK) and rights monitor Burma Campaign UK. They follow the announcement late on Tuesday by the junta’s electoral watchdog, the Union Election Commission, that the National League for Democracy had been abolished under controversial poll rules for failing to re-register ahead of the vote in November.

It was the first time that authorities had formally announced the ban on the NLD, along with nine other parties, although the party’s dissolution had automatically taken effect in May.

The NLD led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi won a landslide victory in the last national elections in 1990, but the military regime never transferred power to her civilian government. She has spent at least 14 of the last 20 years in detention and is currently under house arrest at her home in Rangoon.

Hague’s comments yesterday were delivered in a statement from Britain’s foreign ministry, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London.

He said: “These actions expose the elections in Burma for what they are - a sham process designed to keep the regime in power and deny the Burmese people their right to freely choose their leaders.”

“The elections should have been a chance for the national reconciliation; helping to end decades of ethnic conflict and needless poverty in the country,” he said.

“This opportunity is being squandered,” the statement said, quoting Hague.

“These latest developments should be greeted with dismay and condemnation by the international community and a renewed determination to support the people of Burma,” he added.

Opposition counterpart David Miliband agreed with Hague in comments to the British Press Association.

“These elections will not be free, and they will not be fair. All these elections will do is tighten the junta’s grip on the throat of Burma’s people,” he said.

“Political opinions in Burma are effectively banned, and while the people of Burma are prevented from being able to speak out, it’s important we do so on their behalf,” Miliband said.

The National League for Democracy (Liberated Area-UK) and Burma Campaign UK both welcomed the British support and urged other European nations and countries around the world to cheer on Hague’s condemnation.

The chairman of the NLD-LA-UK Dr. Win Naing said it was very important for leading European countries to reject what the military regime was doing. He said the group strongly objected to the disbanding of the NLD and other ethnic parties as the NLD was the official and leading opposition party mandated by the people of Burma.

“It [the regime] can’t dismantle [the party] like this, as it is an unofficial government and just a military regime,” he said, referring to the fact that the majority of Burmese who voted in 1990 elections voted for the NLD, not the regime.

Burma Campaign UK international co-ordinator Zoya Phan also welcomed Hague’s statement, and said the British government had been very supportive in promoting democracy and human rights in Burma.

She said the group believed it was time for other governments to join Britain its condemnation of the regime’s action and to pressure it to enter into genuine dialogue with the opposition, including the NLD and representatives of ethnic parties.

She told Mizzima: “It is the principles of human rights and democracy that the British government is upholding and we appreciate that, in comparison with other countries, the British government is one of the strongest supporters of democracy in Burma.”

The NLD-LA-UK said it would raise the issue at the European Burma Network meeting next Thursday and Friday, and that it would urge the European Union to object to the regime’s dismantling of the NLD.

The offshore wing of the NLD party and other Burmese opposition party representatives in Britain, comprising a group of 100 protesters, planned to demonstrate in front of the Burmese embassy in London this afternoon against the regime’s attack on the NLD, it said.

Reached for comment about the issue, Khin Maung Swe, a leader of the National Democratic Force (NDF), which broke away from the NLD in order to contest the elections, said the party had nothing to do with the NLD disbanding.

He told Mizzima the issue was far from his party because members were no longer part of the NLD, and that the NLD itself had wanted it to stay out of NLD affairs, he said, referring to a speech by NLD leader Win Tin.

“We have no regard for U Win Tin, which is why we don’t want to say anything about NLD anymore, we are striving to be different from our political friends, which is why we have no comment about Win Tin’s group,” Khin Maung Swe said.

Apart from commending the British foreign secretary’s comments on the abolition of the NLD, he said the matter was not his party’s concern.

Britain is one of the strongest supporters of political reform in Burma, and along with the United States, has imposed financial and travel sanctions against the military regime, families of junta members and junta cronies, their companies and relatives. It is also enforcing a global arms embargo against the regime.

It was also one of the first supporters of a United Nations commission of inquiry to investigate crimes against humanity and war crimes perpetrated by the Burmese military regime. The British backing came in the wake of a recommendation by the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Burma, Tomas Ojea Quintana, for such an inquest in his report to the UN Human Rights Council in March.