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NCGUB: Statement on Human Rights Da



		NATIONAL COALITION GOVERNMENT OF THE UNION OF BURMA
		---------------------------------------------------

	Statement on the Anniversary of Burma's Human Rights Day

On March 13, 1998, the SLORC's riot police shot to death the engineering
student, Pone Maw, right on the campus of the Rangoon Institute of
Technology. In order to raise awareness in the World concerning the lack of
rule of law, safety of person, security of life and human rights in Burma,
the day on which Pone Maw fell has been designated and observed as the
Human Rights Day of Burma. It has been for 10 years now.

(1) As much as a government has to respect and obey the will of the people,
it has to bear the duty to provide, with special attention, security of
life and of person to the people. Additionally, it has to undertake the
work of realizing the opportunity for the people to enjoy individual rights
and raising standard of living of the people. The successive military
dictatorships since 1962, in addition to failing to undertake the
responsibilities mentioned above, have been ruling the country with
repression and prohibitions, and have come to control the right to life of
human persons. 

(2) At the present, the military dictatorship in power is still refusing to
transfer power to the political party the people had voted overwhelmingly
in the 1990 elections. It has been shamelessly repressing those who are
demanding for human rights, democratic rights and ethnic rights. The
members of parliament-elects, in addition to losing the rights to form a
government, are being denied even the right to draft the state
constitution. On the other hand, the people have been increasingly
subjected to the scourge of slave labor, under the name of "voluntary
contribution of labor", forced portage, deprivation of the protection of
law, the disproportionately extensive damage to social and economic fabrics
and displacement by war to other lands for refuge.  Thousands of people in
towns and cities have been driven out to the paddy fields under the
military clique's urban projects and thousands upon thousands in the Shan
and Karen States, where the civil war is raging, have been forcibly
relocated. 

(3) Sadly, we have to witness the military clique's manipulation and
damaging of the advancement of students, for its own self-interest, in the
field of education which is vital for the future of the country.  The
military clique's closing or opening of schools arbitrarily as a means of
preventing strikes and students' movements for their legitimate rights, is
nothing short of destroying the entire future of the country. Though the
military clique is arbitrarily closing or opening civilian centers of
learning, it has continued to open full time the centers of learning
controlled by the military establishment, and thus it is creating unequal
opportunities even in the area of education. This is high treason, which
those ruling the country should never do. It is nothing but systematically
stunting the growth of new generations and to ensure non-progress of the
country, in the future.

(4) If we were to use the international standards of judgement, Burma in
such a deplorable state, would be judged as a country with the worst human
rights records.  The woeful economic situation and the lack of individual
rights of the country cannot be improved by changing the name of the
military clique or transferring power from one military clique to another.
Only by destroying the old system and transiting to a new system, we will
be able to realize the basic human rights of the individuals which are
based on the democratic ideals.  Therefore, we, the NCGUB, earnestly urge
all citizens of the Union of Burma to join hands with us and fight against
the military clique, in order to regain our lost human rights.

March 13, 1998