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It was the first comment by a top official from the reclusive regime defending publicly its actions, which have drawn widespread international condemnation, including from its neighbors in Southeast Asia.
“If offenders are not prosecuted anarchy will prevail and there will be breaches of peace and security,” said Major-General Aye Myint, Burma’s deputy defense minister, at a security conference in Singapore.
The junta has charged Suu Kyi, 63, with violating the terms of her house arrest by sheltering an uninvited American, John Yettaw, 53, after he secretly swam to her lakeside home in early May.
In fact, Aung San Suu Kyi is the key figure in any dialogue aimed at national reconciliation. Regional players in the international community should say with one voice that excluding Suu Kyi and other key ethnic leaders and stakeholders in the 2010 election planned by the regime will lead to new civil strife. Then, in cooperation with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, regional players should press for real democratic change in Burma.
Turning back the calendar six years would reveal the “Black Friday” premeditated ambush to assassinate the Lady near the town of Depayin in military-ruled Burma, at about 8:00 p.m. on May 30, 2003. Although Suu Kyi and U Tin Oo escaped from that killing, it was confirmed that many members and sympathizers of her National League for Democracy were massacred.
Estimates range from 100 to 282 NLD members and supporters killed, with 256 democracy activists arrested in relation to the attack and many more wounded or missing.
A report by the special rapporteur on human rights to Burma, Professor Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, said, “There is prima facie evidence that the Depayin incident could not have happened without the connivance of state agents.”
If “no one is above the law,” why didn’t authorities take to court the guilty lawbreakers of Black Friday? At the very least an independent inquiry commission should have been formed to seek the truth. However, Burma’s junta ignored repeated calls from the international community to investigate the 2003 attack. Instead, the junta incessantly blamed the NLD for the country’s miseries.
Accordingly, there are a number of questions to be asked of Major-General Aye Myint:
Why did your regime fail to take legal action against the criminals in Depayin?
Is it your regime’s intention to harm the region’s peace and security by allowing thuggish gangs to practice anarchy?
Does your junta have a policy of practicing state terrorism?
Paulo Sergio Pinero, the former U.N. special rapporteur on Myanmar, wrote in the New York Times last Thursday: “It is time for the United Nations to take the next logical step: The Security Council must establish a commission of inquiry into crimes against humanity and impunity in Myanmar. The Security Council took similar steps with regard to Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. The situation in Myanmar is equally as critical.”
The international community, led by the United Nations, should keep in mind that in the case of Black Friday the junta’s chief Than Shwe was the key criminal and Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters were the victims. It is clear that Than Shwe was treated as “above the law,” while the military regime declared that it had put the Nobel laureate under “protective custody.”
Since that time the Burmese people have known that the law will not protect them. The United Nations, ASEAN and the European Union all failed to show solidarity with the victims of Black Friday. Hence the Burmese people thought world leaders supported the criminal who instigated the Depayin ambush – and who is responsible for keeping the people in deep poverty in a resource-rich country.
Living in poverty for five decades, the majority of the Burmese people have a bitter hatred toward the military dictatorship and the military elite. They also have an anti-China outlook due to China’s use of its veto at the U.N. Security Council in favor of the rogue military regime, and its exploitation of Burma’s natural resources.
In brief, before these dissatisfactions and bitter hatred explode, it is time for the regional players including China, Japan and ASEAN to pressure the Burmese junta to comply with the United Nations’ consecutive decisions. The world body and regional players should convince the incumbent military rulers to sit down for meaningful talks with Aung San Suu Kyi and the ethnic stakeholders as soon as possible.
The U.N. Security Council has called for the immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners in Burma. The generals should seriously consider responding to these calls if they hope for national reconciliation. It is extremely remarkable that the international community – the U.N. Security Council, the United States, the European Union, ASEAN and the East Asian countries – are currently all taking the same position on the question of Burma.
The United Nations, European Union and ASEAN should try specifically to persuade China to cooperate in finding a solution to the “Burma question.” The military regime must be persuaded to stop finding fault with the Lady and repeating its misleading anti-dialogue policy, which is prolonging the misery and hopelessness of the people of Burma.
Its current political stance is destroying whatever integrity the military itself has left. Yet it could create a win-win situation by recognizing Aung San Suu Kyi as the ideal dialogue partner for national reconciliation.
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(Zin Linn is a freelance Burmese journalist living in exile in Thailand. he is working at the NCGUB East Office as an information director and is vice-president of Burma Media Association, which is affiliated with the Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontiers. He can be contacted at uzinlinn@gmail.com.)
