For Immediate Release: January 6th, 2004
Contact: (202) 223-0300

CALL
FOR UN SECRETARY GENERAL TO TERMINATE SPECIAL
ENVOY TO BURMA

(Washington,
DC) The International Campaign for Democracy
in Burma (ICDB), a working committee of Burmese
pro-democracy organizations, today sent a letter
to United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan
criticizing his public support for a handpicked
“national convention” that Burma’s
military regime says will lead to democracy
in the country. The move follows similar criticism
by several members of the US Congress, Amnesty
International, and the Washington Post editorial
page.
“We are deeply disappointed in you and
your envoy Razali Ismail for lending your words
of support to the Burma’s military junta,”
reads the letter. “The regime’s promised
national convention is not a real solution for
Burma.”

Burma’s present military junta, which
has ruled the country since 1988, announced
the national convention in August 2003 after
worldwide condemnation of its failed assassination
attempt on 1991 Nobel Peace Prize recipient
Aung San Suu Kyi, during which scores of Suu
Kyi’s supporters were brutally beaten
to death with iron rods and bamboo clubs. The
United States, European Union, Canada, and Japan
all increased sanctions and/or withheld foreign
aid after the attack, and the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations broke with tradition
in harshly criticizing the regime.

However, since that time, the junta has been
able to diffuse increased international pressure
by promising a transition to democracy through
the national convention. On December 19th, Secretary
General Annan welcomed the national convention,
following a similar statement by his special
envoy to Burma, Malaysian diplomat Razali Ismail.

Meanwhile, Aung San Suu Kyi and the leadership
of the National League for Democracy, which
won Burma’s last democratic election in
a landslide, remain imprisoned or under house
arrest. The junta has already handpicked 144
of the delegates for the convention, choosing
their allies and cronies, and appears to be
re-creating a similar convention it held from
1993-1996. The junta forced the NLD to attend
the convention by threatening to de-register
it as a party while Aung San Suu Kyi was under
house arrest, but in 1996 the junta expelled
the NLD delegates and adjourned the convention
after the NLD called for changes in convention
procedures that effectively guaranteed the junta’s
grip on power and blocked open debate.

The letter echoes complaints made by Amnesty
International and the Washington Post. Said
Amnesty after its recent investigation in Burma,
“Claims by Burma’s military regime that
it is implementing a ‘road map’ towards democracy
starting with a national convention would remain
hollow as long as it keep senior opposition
figures in jail amidst a spreading ‘climate
of fear.’” Said the Washington Post
in a December 23rd editorial, “The rest
of the world should not indulge the ruling thugs
in their cynical game of make-believe.”

In the letter, ICDB made seven requests of Annan,
beginning with the dismissal of Ismail. Said
the letter, “His [Ismail’s] publicly
and repeatedly stated belief that the only possible
route to change in Burma is through constantly
praising the regime is simply not true. There
is an alternative–global, targeted economic
and political sanctions, which has been called
for repeatedly by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the
NLD.” The letter then calls on Annan to
use his authority to raise Burma at the UN Security
Council.

####

ICDB is a working committee of Burmese pro-democracy
groups from around the world. It was founded
on October 11-12th, 2003 at the world’s
largest gathering of Burmese democracy activists-in-exile.
ICDB operates under the leadership of the National
Council of the Union of Burma and the National
Coalition Government of the Union of Burma,
the country’s government in exile.

Contact: Aung Din (Washington, DC) (202)
223-0300, Tin Maung Thaw (Virginia) (703) 834-5670,
Moe Chan (New York) (646) 643-8689, Nyunt Than
(San Francisco) (510) 220-1323, Nyein Chan Oo
(Indiana)
(260) 704-0242, Win Shwe (Indiana)(260) 456-9465,
Nai Banyar Dean (Indiana) (260) 447-7741, U
Han Lin (Ithaca) (607) 351-6222, Ye Htut (Japan)