Nation of prisoners sustained by dr

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Subject: Nation of prisoners sustained by dream of freedom 


>From The Nation, Thailand
5th April 1999

Nation of prisoners sustained by dream of freedom

Political change did not come in time for Michael Aris. Aung San Suu
Kyi herself might miss it. But it will come one day, writes Professor
Josef Silverstein. 

The opening of the 1999 session of the UN Commission on Human Rights
is an appropriate background to consider new developments in the human
rights tragedy in Burma. 

There, the leader of the democratic opposition, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,
is facing one of the greatest challenges in her life. Since 1988 when
she emerged on the political stage and received international
recognition, she has faced all sorts of obstacles. For five years
(1989-95) she was held under house arrest without trial and isolated
from the outside world except for a meeting with US congressman Bill
Richardson. 

In 1991, she was awarded the Nobel Peace prize for leading the
peaceful struggle for political change in her country. Although the
military rulers have been unresponsive, she has steadfastly called for
dialogue with them and a peaceful transition to democratic rule for
which the people voted overwhelmingly in the national election of
1990. After her release from house arrest she confronted the military
rulers over their efforts to write a new constitution which would keep
them in permanent power and other political questions while they
sought, in every way possible, to force her to leave Burma. 

She was unwilling to consider leaving because she knew that those in
power would never allow her to return and resume the leadership of the
opposition. Thus, even though the government has harassed, vilified
and intimidated her, they could not bend or break her determination to
remain and work for democratic change. Her strong-willed resistance to
and outspoken criticism of the men in power strengthened her public
support as the people saw her fighting for their rights. 

To better understand Aung San Suu Kyi, it is helpful to know that she
is the daughter of Aung San, the post-World War II leader of the Burma
Nationalist Movement who led the nation to the threshold of

independence in July 1947, only to be assassinated by a disgruntled
rival. As the commanding figure of that period, he was the man who
created the Burmese army and then gave up its leadership to take
command of the political struggle for independence. 

One of his most important achievements was winning the support of the
ethnic minorities by assuring them of participation in the governing
of the future Union of Burma. When he died, there was no comparable
leader to succeed him. Shortly after independence, a number of
internal wars erupted -- some continue to this day making voluntary
national unity an illusive goal. Aung San Suu Kyi never knew her
father as she was only two months old at the time of his murder. 

After years of living abroad with only brief visits home, she returned
to Burma in 1988 to nurse her sick and elderly mother. By the summer
of that year, she was drawn into the political maelstrom and quickly
emerged as the nation's leader. For more than a decade she has
inspired the people by her stoic acceptance of isolation under house
arrest and her return to leadership of the democratic struggle after
being released only to find the military rulers blocking every path
she took. 

In this unequal contest, she has stood bravely facing their guns and
ugly attempts at humiliation which included disparaging remarks about
her marriage to a European, children of mixed blood and her refusal to
return to her family in England. Despite the military's many efforts
to denigrate her, she has remained at the forefront of the people's
political struggle. Like her father, she stands for democracy, human
rights and freedom. 

Today, Aung San Suu Kyi faces a new personal problem and probably the
most serious challenge in her life. Her husband, Michael Aris, a
professor at Oxford University, has died of cancer. His requests for a
visa to visit his wife were refused. 

Aris was a scholar of Himalayan languages. He and Aung San Suu Kyi met
at Oxford while she was a student and fell in love. In the
introduction to her book, ''Freedom from Fear'', he wrote, ''She
constantly reminded me that one day she would have to return to Burma,
that she counted on my support at that time, not as her due, but as a
favour.'' Also published in her book are excerpts from letters she
wrote to him, ''I only ask one thing, that should my people need me,
you would help me to do my duty to them.'' In another, she wrote, ''if
we love and cherish each other as much as we can while we can, I am
sure love and compassion will triumph in the end.'' Throughout the
past 11 years he quietly stood by her, visiting whenever the military
rulers permitted. 

Here, then, is a human rights tragedy at its most human level. It is
not a unique situation in Burma. For 11 years, countless families have
been torn apart by the brutal ruling army which shows no compassion
for the human needs of husbands and wives, parents and children. 

Today, there are more than 100,000 Burmese political refugees in
Thailand; in some cases they are families but, in most, they are
individuals who have fled their land to avoid abuse, arrest,
imprisonment and execution if caught by the Burmese soldiers. Many

have not found safety in their neighbouring state because the Burmese
army and its auxiliaries have crossed the borders, attacking and
burning the refugee camps and forcing the refugees to return home. 

Today, the soldiers in power have forced the nation to become a land
of informers; members of families against one another, neighbours
against each other and all under a military intelligence web which
extends throughout the land and even into foreign countries. The
rulers maintain their control by turning loved ones against each other
as they constantly intrude into all aspects of the people's lives. 

Today, men, women and children in the battle zones are forced to
labour for the army both by carrying equipment and performing the role
of human mine-sweepers; to leave their land and villages after seeing
their huts burned, their crops destroyed and being beaten and murdered
after being accused of helping the rebel forces or refusing soldiers'
demands to pay tribute. 

As recent as last year, more than 1,000 elected members of parliament
and local political leaders were forced to resign from their political
party, sign statements of non-support for Aung San Suu Kyi or face
prison. Today, there are thousands of former students, both male and
female, who fled their homes in 1998 and have remained separated from
their families for fear of arrest only because they marched peacefully
in protest against military rule and for the restoration of democracy.

This situation is so well documented by the US State Department, the
United Nations, the International Labour Organisation and, most
recently, by the Rapporteur in his report to the UN Commission on
Human Rights. Nothing new needs to be added. The Burmese rulers have
closed the country to journalists with experience in the region or in
Burma in order to prevent responsible reporting to the world. 

In 1990, the military rulers declared that they did not govern with
the support of the people; instead, they said, their legitimacy came
from recognition by foreign governments, international and regional
organisations and that they govern by martial law having set the
constitution and the elected parliament aside. 

This is the tragedy of Aung San Suu Kyi and the people of Burma. Each
knows what he or she has to do and all will accept and understand the
decisions each makes whatever they are. 

But, in Burma, where a large majority of the people are Buddhist, they
believe that everything is subject to the law of impermanence.
Political change, they believe, will come; it did not come in time for
Michael Aris, and it may not come in time for Aung San Suu Kyi, but it
will come and the people, one day, will be freed from the prison the
soldiers/rulers have made of their land. 


http://www.nationmultimedia.com/index/edit.html




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