Mon Monks / Students Dec.10.1994

[ojasti@xxxxxxxxxx]

INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS DAY - DECEMBER 10TH, 1994

Statement from Overseas Mon Young Monks Union and
               Overseas Mon National Students Organization


With the growing acceptance of the belief that every person, simply by
virtue of being human, has certain "human rights" which he or she is en-
titled to without distinction of any kind - such as race, color, sex,
language, religion, political or other opinion, irrespective of nationa-
lity or social origin - the celebration of the International Human Rights
Day takes on a particular significance for the whole world. Indeed, hope-
fully there will come a time when "Human Rights Day" may de a more sig-
nificant celebration that even that of New Years day - for the day in
which those rights are universally subscribed to and enforce will mark
the dawn of a new day in the future of humanity.

Human Rights Day is a day not only to celebrate the achievement made to-
wards having all nations ratify the two International human rights Cove-
nants which the United Nations adopted in 1966 as a means of giving legal
form to the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights , but also a day,
once a year, each year, to focus the world4s attention on those nations
in which the chronic abuse of basic human rights is most appaling. Burma
in certainly one of those nations.

Indeed, the SLORC Dictatorship in Burma ha so blatantly abused human 
rights, has abused them so all embracingly and over such a prevailing
period of time, that when people hear about Burma they think about a 
place where an illicit government has long ago lost all respective for
human values. News from Burma or about Burma is never good news - it is
merely an update in an ongoing saga of abuse and oppression. 1994 saw
no signs whatsoever that any improvement to the situation is about to
take place, indeed, there has been no marked improvement in rights abuses
in Burma in the past half decade. The sign that change is really taking
place in Burma will be given the day that Aung San Suu Kyi walks freely 
about the streets of Rangoon engaging in a free exchange of conversation
with her fellow citizens. It will be the sign that the people of Burma
indeed live in freedom from fear. That sign still seems a far way off.

For we Mon in exile, the situation in our homeland is particularly pain-
ful. We feel helpless in the face of the continued abuse of our people,
of arbitrary arrests, of military attacks on our refugee camps, of Slave
labour for state projects, or the intolerance of free thought, of the
continued discrimination of the basis of being an ethnic minority, of
the denial of our social and cultural rights, even the right to teach
our own language to our children - and of the innumerable acts of vio-
lence perpetrated against our people on an individual or collective basis
by personnel of the Burmese Army. When is the suffering of our Mon pe-
ople to come to an end ? When are we to have our freedom and rights?

We can continue to record individual violations of Mon human rights for
such wellrespected organizations as Amnesty International or Asia Watch,
and we can continue to use rallies or public protests as a means of 
helping to keep a public focus on the issue; but as long as economic
greed is the motivating force behind the foreign policies of nations
who have befriended the SLORC, such as those who belong to the ASEAN
group, there is little likelihood that the human rights situation in
Burma will show any decided improvement in the near future.

Even more alarming in terms of human rights in Burma - indeed, alar-
ming for the future of human rights throughout all of southeast Asia -
is the massive build us of offensive military weapons by the Burmese
military through sales by Mainland China. To what good purpose is this
threatening arms build-up? How can China, itself still so sorely wanting
in democracy and basic human rights, pretend to the world that it is 
seriously interested in self-reform, and yet so wholehertedly embrace
one of the world4s worst military dictatorships - the SLORC ? Some sort
of message from the free world is obviously not getting through to China,
it needs now to be sent again in less uncertain terms.

We Mon monks and students are likewise convinced that some sort of con-
crete action is called for in terms of restoring democracy and respect
for human rights in Burma, and that the time for such action is ripe.
Five years of protest, five years of continuing to file reports on the
abuses of human rights is long enough. We believe that the time has
come to adopt more strident economic measures against those corporations
who continue to do business with the SLORC. Individuals, human rights
groups and religious organizations could be of great help if they would
begin to devise and support boycotts against the offending corporations
or the products they produce. For example, it is altogether clear that
the Boycott of Pepsi for its close co-operation with the SLORC Govern-
ment is having a telling effect on that company. That boycot can be and 
should be carried even further. Let 1995 be the year in which Pepesi
decides to get out of Burma.

We also believe it is time to take economic action against the Total
Company of France, Texaco and Unocal Corporations in America and Nippon
Oil in Japan for the social andecological disasters they are helping to
create and promote in Burma in the name of corporate profit. We would
like to see religious and human rights groups around the world devise
and support boycotts of products and investments in these companies.

It is a well-known fact that of all the nations in Asia, China and
Thailand have been most supportive of the military dictatorship in Burma
by close and cordial relationships. If the military dictatorship in 
Burma has been able to continue its unwinding hold on the nation, it is
in part due to the foreign policies of these two nations. We are con-
vinced that serious thought needs to be given as to what concrete eco-
nomic measures might be adopted by private groups or socially conscious
individual citizens all over the world as a means of persuading China
and Thailand to rethink their policies.

Those of us among the exiles and refugees from Burma who are Buddhist
monks make a special appeal on this Human Rights Day to the adherents
of other faiths around the globe, and especially to interfaith groups,
to use this forthcoming year, 1995, to help us secure a greater measure
of freedom and democracy for our people. What is called for is a con-
crete plan of action to bring preassure for change-pressure on corpora-
tions that are investing in Burma, preassure on governments whose foreign
policies promote acceptance of the SLORC, preassure on the military dic-
tators themselves Burma. Since the motive for the continued support of
the SLORC is based on economic profit, the preassure to bring about
change on behalf of democracy and human rights should be similarly based
- take the profit out of such support, and change will likely occur.
Make it unprofitable to invest in Burma until Burma is free, make it
unprofitable to invest in Burma  untill human rights have been estab-
lished. Make it unprofitable for China, through a myoptic foreign
policy, to promote military dictatorship next door.

Let us all work together to make " Human Rights Day " truly a day of
human rights in Burma. For it is only when human rights have been se-
cures for all that our own human rights are secure.

Central Committee		Central Committee
Overseas Mon Young Monks        Overseas Mon National Students
Union 				Organization.

G.P.O. Box 765 , Bangkok 10501 , Thailand