The Nation : EDITORIAL: Foreign act

[hlaing@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

The Nation
August 11, 1998
EDITORIAL: Foreign activists turn heat on Burmese junta

We are your friends from around the world. We have not forgotten you. We
support your hopes for human rights and democracy. 8-8-88 -- Don't forget
-- Don't give up. 

These words, which were printed on a red business-card-sized leaflet,
according to the 18 foreign activists who were apprehended in Rangoon last
weekend, represented a ''goodwill message''. The Burmese military junta,
however, thought otherwise. The message, said the junta, was meant to
''incite unrest'', and the activists were summarily detained after being
caught distributing the leaflets at various locations in the capital. The
junta added yesterday that the foreigners had broken three laws. 

Lawbreakers are often swiftly punished under the military regime. If the
perpetrators were Burmese, they would have been dispatched to the infamous
Insein Prison, where most political prisoners are housed, and most in
appalling conditions. Clearly the detained activists are gambling that the
junta will not imprison them simply because they are foreigners. 

That, however, is a risky gamble. The ruling State Peace and Development
Council's determination in punishing dissidents, both local and foreign,
should never be underestimated. Only last Thursday the regime released a
foreign activist who was arrested in September after he chained himself to
a fence in central Rangoon and shouted anti-government slogans. 

The activist, James Mawdsley, who holds British and Australian passports,
was sentenced in May to five years in jail and fined for entering the
country illegally. He was eventually deported after pleas from foreign
diplomats but not before having languished in prison for months. 

No wonder the embassies representing the arrested foreign nationals are now
working overtime to press for the release of the activists. With such
international pressure being brought to bear on the regime, it is likely
that the junta will deport them soon, but not before they are punished in
order to discourage others from following their example. The question
remains whether the punishment is measured in days, weeks or months. 

Altsean-Burma, a Bangkok-based NGO which is providing media support for the
detained activists, argued that ''expressing goodwill to the peoples of
Burma does not constitute inciting unrest''. They are right. The activists
were merely engaging in peaceful activities, and they should be released
immediately. 

The 18 detained foreign activists, calling themselves the Multinational
Peacemaking Team, include lawyers, academics, business people and students,
and they comprise six US citizens, three Malaysians, three Indonesians,
three Thais, two Filinpinos and an Australian, all from groups which
support the pro-democracy movement in Burma. 

There is no denying that these activists have the best of intentions in
going to Rangoon to distribute the ''goodwill message'' leaflets. In so
doing they were willing to risk arrest to support what is a just cause, the
struggle for freedom in Burma. Yet there is only so much that foreigners
can do for the democracy movement in Burma. Beyond this the struggle is
really up to the Burmese peoples. 

Indeed the democratic opposition has not given up. Burmese exiles are
already growing impatient, and some have called for mass demonstrations.
All eyes are now on the next Friday deadline, Aug 21, set by National
League of Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi for the government to convene a
Parliament of members elected at the 1990 polls, with the Nobel laureate
threatening unspecified actions should this be rejected by the military. 

No doubt the detentions of the foreign activists have once again thrown the
international spotlight on Burma and fuelled the simmering tension between
the democratic opposition and the military, but whether Aug 21 will mark
the beginning of an end to the decade-long political impasse is unclear.
What is clear, however, is that the deadlock cannot continue indefinitely. 

Interestingly, while all attention is on the detention of the foreign
activists in Rangoon, two Burmese students who were protesting outside the
Burmese Embassy in Bangkok were detained by Thai police for not having
proper documents to be in the city and are being held at the immigration
detention centre waiting to be sent back to the refugee camp at the border.


It appears that Burmese police who harass pro-democracy protesters are
internationally chastised while Thai police doing the same in Bangkok
escape criticism. How ironic!. 



The Nation