To The 53rd Session Of The United Nations Commission On Human Rights
1.30pm. Geneva, Tuesday 8 April 1997
The leader of the National League for Democracy in Burma and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi, smuggled out an address to the 53rd session of the UN Convention on Human Rights.
*1. I would like start by asking your views on the increasing restrictions placed on you and your MPs.
When I talk of human rights violations in Burma, I think not about -- well, we can no longer think in terms of which rights are being violated, but in terms of which rights are not being violated. I think I can say that all our rights are being violated.
And the restrictions placed on members of the NLD and supporters of the NLD are really excessive. Its not just that we are prevented from doing our political work; the families of supporters are subjected to a lot of economic pressure. There's interference with their economic activities and even with educational activities.
There are those who have been threatened that if their parents don't tow the line they will lose their jobs, or that they will not be allowed to take certain examinations. Now whether the threats will be carried out I don't know.
Threats have been made and in some cases people have been penalised because of their connections to members of the NLD, supporters of the NLD.
Now at the moment a lot of our members of parliament have been forced to resign. They have been forced to resign through pressure on their families. Some have refused to resign.
One of our members of parliament has been made to leave his state home apartment where he had lived for years, because he refused to resign from the NLD.
And there are at the moment a number of cases pending, a number of trumped-up cases against members of parliament from the NLD.
Now the latest case which I think was of considerable interest because of his connections to General Khin Nyunt was that of Doctor Than Nyein who was arrested on the grounds that he had treated patients in his consultation room before the license had been issued properly. He was released, I understand, yesterday and only fined a thousand kyats. Now this of course is very unusual. I've not heard of members of the NLD who ever got away without some sort of prison sentence. I don't know whether Doctor Than Nyein has got away with it because so many people have been speculating on why he was arrested.
There were those who said that his arrest indicated that Khin Nyunt's grip on power was slipping. And perhaps because of these comments the authorities felt that it would be politic to let him off lightly. But if he's let off lightly then others in a similar situation should be let off lightly too.
There's a case of another NLD doctor who was, I think, charged with culpable homicide, because a patient who was dying in any case, and whom he treated with an injection to enable the patient to reach the hospital, died on the way to hospital. I understand that they have now changed the charge because that wouldn't stick.
But when they performed the autopsy they found that the patient hardly had any lungs left. Almost all the whole of his lungs had been eaten away by tuberculosis. So they could only conclude that he was going to die anyway.
But I understand that now they are trying to change the charge and make it one similar to that with which they charged Doctor Than Nyein, giving treatment in a consultation room without a proper licence.
Now most doctors in Burma don't have licences for their consultation rooms. They of course, they have proper medical certificates which give them the right to practice. But the majority of doctors don't bother about applying for a consultation room license simply because the authorities don't bother to issue the license even if you apply for one.
So they use the rules and regulations, they use the law as they like in order to restrict the NLD, in order to stop people from working effectively for the democracy movement.
My own road, the road to my house, has been blocked off now for three months. It started -- the first time they blocked it was in September, but then that was on and off. They would open it occasionally, then they would block it off again. But it's been blocked off completely since the 3rd of December. So that makes it three months now, about three months tomorrow exactly.
And this of course is meant to stop us from carrying on our NLD activities in my home. And every time people come to see me they have to get permission from the authorities. And when Burmese people come to see me they are asked for their national registration certificate. And sometimes they are kept waiting at the road-block for a long time. And as for people from abroad, especially journalists, sometimes they are just not allowed in at all.
Although the people at the barricades were informed that so and so would be coming, if they feel that they don't want to let a certain person through they don't let that person through. They have done this to journalists and to diplomats as well. So this is again a form of harassment, a way of trying to restrict the activities of the National League for Democracy.
I would like to make the point that the NLD is not just a political party. It represents a whole democratic movement in Burma, because all the other parties working for democracy have been effectively crushed.
There are of course some ethnic nationalities' parties, but they are rather small, and they don't operate on a national basis; they only operate in their own areas. Well, which leaves the NLD as the only political party that operates throughout the country, and that represents the movement for democracy. So restricting the NLD is tantamount to crushing democracy.
I would like to remind the international community of the fact that the General Assembly resolution calls for an early restoration of democracy to Burma, in line with the wishes of the people as expressed through the 1990 elections. Now that is a very good resolution, but it needs to be implemented.
That resolution also calls for the full and free participation of the Burmese people in the political process of the country. Again that needs to be implemented.
Our political rights are getting fewer and fewer by the day. There are more restrictions, more repression, the authorities seem determined to crush any kind of political movement.
They have, as I am sure many of you will have heard, they have built up a so-called social welfare organisation called the Union Solidarity and Development Association, the USDA, which they are using occasionally as a political arm, and occasionally as just a gang of thugs, to harass and intimidate those who are working for democracy.
In November it was members of the USDA who attacked the cars in which U Kyi Maung and U Tin Oo and I were traveling. So I have no inhibitions in saying that the USDA more than occasionally performs the work of mere thugs. This is not the way in which a responsible government should behave. A responsible government does not build up a gang of hooligans to attack those whom it wishes to crush politically.
Ours is a non-violent political movement. But however non- violent it may be, a political movement should be allowed to demonstrate its opposition to certain government policies, if it thinks that it is right to do so. And there are many policies of the government which we are obliged to oppose because these policies are aimed at crushing the movement for democracy.
Because we are obliged to speak up against such government policies as are unjust and repressive, we should not be treated like criminals. Our people are treated worse than criminals, because the families of criminals are not penalised. If a man has committed a crime, whether it's murder, or robbery, or assault, he is punished. His family, his family members are not punished. But in our case, members, family members of the National League for Democracy, families of members of the National League for Democracy are heavily penalised. Often very heavily penalised.
So the present situation is such that we need maximum attention on what is happening to the National League for Democracy; how this government is treating members of the National League for Democracy. Because that is an indication of the degree to which the authorities are prepared to go to prevent democracy from taking root in Burma.
And therefore that is in direct opposition to the spirit, as well as the terms, of the General Assembly Resolution.
*2. Can you tell me your views on the religious unrest that's been happening recently?
As I understand it, the unrest in Mandalay began because of the fact that there was some damage done to this very, very famous and very, very revered image of the Buddha, the Maha-myat-muni image. And the monks were very angry about this, and they thought that the authorities were in some way responsible for the -- I think it was a crack -- which had appeared in the image.
And about the same time the problems with the Muslim community started. And there are those who speculate that this was intended to distract attention from what had happened to the Maha-myat-muni image. I don't know how true this is, but I can say that the present problems between the Muslim communities and the Buddhist monks does not do our country any good at All.
And of course the authorities, as you can imagine, would like to blame the whole thing on the NLD. They try to blame everything on the NLD. According to the authorities, it's the NLD who always decides what happens in the country. If we are so very powerful, we might as well take over power completely.
The present situation seems to be under control. I think there are probably certain places in Burma where there is a lot of tension between the Muslims and the Buddhists. But on the whole I think the people are quite calm, and they do not want trouble. And I think that the community of Buddhist monks on the whole also are calling for restraint and calm.
The real source, the real reason behind this, is I think social unrest. When there is communal strife anywhere it is due to social unrest. Social unrest of course is related to such factors as political dissatisfaction and economic problems.
So we can't just isolate the problems between the Buddhist monks and the Muslims and say, well there is trouble there -- there is trouble throughout the country. It's just a symptom of the general malaise that you will find in Burma today.
I really hope that the situation will be resolved soon, because we want Burma to be a country that is safe and secure for all its citizens, whatever the religion.
*3. What about the situation on the Thai/Burma border at the moment, of refugees being pushed back in some cases? Are you aware of the situation there?
Yes and we are very concerned about this. We really want the international community to help the refugees as far as possible.
And we would like the Thai authorities to look on these refugees with compassion and not to force them to return back to their homes where there is no security.
Again, of course, the reason why there are so many refugees is because the cease-fire [negotiation] between the KNU and the military government has broken down. And this is another indication of the unstable political situation of Burma today.
SLORC has been claiming that it has achieved cease-fires, it has been able to bring peace to the border. Well obviously, this is not so.
Cease-fires do not mean peace, they do not mean long term peace at all. Cease-fires simply mean that you stop shooting at each other for a certain length of time. You still keep your guns at the ready. Which means that you can start shooting any time you think that it's no longer either wise or possible to continue with the ceasefire.
We are very concerned about the situation of our ethnic nationalities. Of course, people know about these refugees. But we understand that on this side of the border there are many, many villages of Karens and other ethnic nationalities where the people are subjected to a lot of persecution, repression, forced porterage, torture, and I am told, even summary execution.
So the situation is not good. With regard to the refugees, we really hope that the UNHCR will be allowed to help them, and that the international community will provide as much support for them as possible.
*4 .What is your assessment of the current situation of human rights abuses in Burma.
Bad! As I said earlier, one does not think in terms of which human rights have been violated. One thinks in terms of which human rights have not been violated. And one sometimes comes to the conclusion that are no rights which have not been violated.
Forced labour is a daily business. And children are made to provide forced labour because often the parents can't take time off to go and work on these forced labour projects. The economic situation is bad. The standards of living of a lot of people have fallen. And there is a struggle in order to be able to eat two full meals a day.
So if the parents have to go and work on forced labour projects where they are not paid, it means that the family can not eat for the day. Consequently, they send children out to work on the project while the parents go out to earn money.
And of course there are also children on construction sites. Now that is not forced labour, but that again is due to economic pressure. In a number of families they cannot make ends meet unless the children work as well.
You can find this if you study the records of UNICEF with regard to children in primary schools. The dropout rate of children in primary schools has been rising.
And this is, I understand, primarily due to the poverty of the families. Either they cannot afford to send the children to school, because they cannot clothe them properly, or they cannot give all these -- well, education is supposed to be free but actually you are made to contribute to this event and that event, and this bit of school equipment and that bit of school furniture and so on.
So because they cannot afford to pay these charges, or because they need the children to help them earn more money for the family, parents take their children away before they've completed primary school, and the dropout rate is therefore rising. So child rights in Burma is an issue which needs to be addressed very urgently.
*5. In terms of the current situation, how do you see the international community's obligations at this time?
The main obligation of the international community is to do every thing it can to implement the terms of the General Assembly resolution. As I said earlier, it is a good resolution, but it shouldn't just remain on paper. It needs to be implemented.
And since it was passed unanimously, I think the international community does have an obligation to try to implement its terms; to take it seriously, not just to regard it as a piece of paper.
I would like to call for a strong resolution on the human rights situation in Burma. As I said earlier, there are hardly any human rights which have not been violated by this military regime. And we need strong action from the international community to put an end to these constant violations of basic human rights.
We would like the human rights resolution to address very particularly the question of political rights, as well as the right of people to be free from such pressures as forced labour, forced relocation. And we would also like the resolution to address the question of the refugees. I think these are the three main points that we would like addressed, that political rights should be enjoyed by all of us and particularly by members of the National League for Democracy. Not because this is my party but because, as I have already said, it represents the movement for democracy in Burma. And therefore protecting the political rights of the National League for Democracy is part of the process of helping to implement the terms of the General Assembly resolution on Burma.
And we would really like the question of forced labour and forced relocation to be addressed very seriously, because that disrupts the lives of families, it causes ill health, it also even causes death in some cases. And of course, the refugee problem.
The refugee problem ultimately is an off-shoot of the political problem. If there were political stability in Burma, if there were a democratic system that allowed people to express their hopes, their fears, their aspirations, their difficulties, their resentments, through a legal channel, there would not be all this problem of refugees. There would not be this problem of insurgencies. People take to arms because they feel there is no other way in which they can resolve their problems.
If there were a system which allowed them to resolve their problems politically rather than militarily, I think we would find that peace will come back to Burma. And therefore the refugee problem would disappear. Not overnight, but it will certainly disappear once there is the right kind of political system and political atmosphere in the country.
Which is why I put the political rights of the National League for Democracy and others working for democracy in Burma as the most important item on the agenda for the Human Rights Commission.
We would also like to make sure that the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Secretary General is allowed to come into Burma to find out what is going on, to meet the political opposition and to hear from them exactly how they are subjected to persecution and repression.
And we think that the idea of having a group of people to monitor the human rights situation in Burma from a suitable location is an excellent one, and I hope that this will be taken up by the United Nations.