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RIGHTS-BURMA: Junta Turns Ire on Red Cross

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Nov 30 2006 (IPS) - Anxious as they are to avoid a showdown at the United Nations Security Council over its human rights record, Burma’s military rulers have not given up a well-entrenched habit of causing self-inflicted wounds.

The latest shot in the foot was the junta ordering the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to shut down all five of its field offices in the country, disrupting the work of the respected humanitarian agency in providing clean water and sanitation projects for the handicapped, including landmine victims.

The ban on Monday comes nearly a year after the ICRC was forced to end regular prison visits. Those who had benefited till then were the over 1,100 political prisoners, who depended on the visits for medical care and reading material that the Geneva-based agency’s officers would bring.

‘’This is a very cruel decision by the Burmese government. It can lead to more loss of lives,” says Bo Kyi, a member of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), a group that champions the human rights concerns of those jailed in Burma. He should know, since he survived seven years and three months in prison in the 1990s for his political activity.

‘’It means that the SPDC doesn’t care for any international engagement,” he told IPS, using the initials for the official name that Burma’s military rulers have given themselves, the State Peace and Development Council.

The Geneva-based ICRC also put its renowned quiet diplomacy practices aside to openly condemn the action of the junta in Myanmar, the new name by which the SPDC calls the country. ‘’The ICRC utterly deplores the decision by the Myanmar authorities to close its field offices as it places in jeopardy the accomplishments of the humanitarian work already carried out in behalf of the most vulnerable among the country’s population, in particular people held in prison or living in sensitive border areas,” it said in a statement this week.

Rangoon’s ban came on the same day that John Bolton, U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said he would haul the oppressive Burmese regime before the powerful Security Council in the coming weeks. Washington will introduce a draft resolution castigating the rulers of the South-east Asian country as a threat to regional peace and security, Bolton said.

The SPDC’s reaction to such a prospect was swift and revealing. A Security Council resolution would ‘’destroy” reconciliation efforts that the Burmese government is pursuing, Brigadier General Khin Yee, the national police chief, was quoted as having told the media on Wednesday.

Turning the U.S. envoy’s argument around, Khin Yee said that the Security Council resolution was an attempt to ‘’interfere in the internal affairs of Myanmar” and that ‘’will become a threat to peace and security in the region.”

But few in the international community may fall for such arguments, say Burmese political analysts and activists, since Bolton’s charge against the Burmese regime comes in response to its increasingly notorious human rights record. Burma was first discussed by the Council in December 2005 and it was formally placed on the Council’s agenda for scrutiny on Sept. 15 this year.

This change of forum comes after U.N. involvement in the country for the past 12 years, during which period Rangoon chose to ignore commitments made to the world body’s envoys for Burma. The SPDC was also dismissive of the many non-binding resolutions passed at the U.N. calling for political reform and an easing of the junta’s iron grip on power.

Such an attitude was amplified this week, for the day after Rangoon banned the ICRC, a high ranking U.N. official who had been to Burma in early November revealed to the Security Council the substance of his visit and the ‘’concrete” commitments he had sought from the SPDC.

‘’Five major issues that I raised were: political prisoners, humanitarian access, a more inclusive political process, (concerns of) the International Labour Organisation, and a cessation of hostilities against the ethnic minorities, particularly in Karen state,” Ibrahim Gambari, undersecretary-general for political affairs, was quoted as having told reporters after making his report to the Council.

And besides clearly showing little regard for the political activists it has jailed and the mounting humanitarian crisis it has created, the Burmese regime has also not stopped its attacks against the Karens nor has it changed its stance towards the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

‘’Thousands of Burmese civilians forced to flee from army attacks in Karen state are trekking through free-fire zones in search of safety and food aid,” Human Rights Watch said in a report on Thursday. ‘’In Karen state (along Burma’s eastern border), a year-long military offensive against Karen resistance fighters has displaced 27,000 civilians, with at least 45 civilians killed by government forces.”

‘’Recent attacks have killed seven villagers and forced more than 1,450 to flee in Mon Township of Nyaunglebin District,” the New York-based rights lobby adds. ‘’Across the country, more than 82,000 have been forced to flee conflict.”

In mid-November, after Rangoon failed to meet its commitment to end forced labour, where villagers are driven to perform work for the army in slave-like conditions, the ILO announced that it would refer Burma to the International Court of Justice – making it the first country in the world to face this judicial body in The Hague for abusive labour practices.

Burma has been ruled by successive military regimes since a 1962 coup. The current rulers gained notoriety after a bloody crackdown of pro-democracy street protests in 1988 and a refusal to recognise the results of a 1990 parliamentary election, which was won by the political party headed by Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, presently under house arrest.

Bolton has been winning praise from a broad section of Burmese civilians inside the country and those in exile. ‘’They are supporting the U.S. campaign to get Burma before the Security Council because they feel something will come out of it,” Khin Myo Htwe, editor of ‘New Era,’ a monthly news magazine in Burmese, told IPS.

‘’The military is worried by these moves and their recent actions make it clear,” Soe Aung, foreign affairs spokesman of the National Council of the Union of Burma, an umbrella group of Burmese political organisations in exile, added in an interview. ‘’The opposition groups inside Burma are using this moment to add more pressure, calling for a binding resolution at the Security Council leading to genuine talks on political reform and reconciliation.”