Burma Stonewalls at the UN

By The Irrawaddy

At the UN General Assembly in New York on Monday, Burmese Foreign Minister Nyan Win tried to appease countries concerned with Burma’s political deadlock and repression of dissidents, maintaining the regime’s "roadmap to democracy" offers the best chance for a return to civilian rule.

He said nothing about freedom for political prisoners, including Burma's democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and or a willingness to talk to the political opposition, a point raised by the UN’s ad hoc "Group of Friends of Myanmar" two days earlier.

On Saturday, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly ministerial session, the group, which includes the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), the European Union, the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France, called on the junta to cooperate with the UN. The Security Council has also demanded that the military regime release all political prisoners, talk with pro-democracy groups, open up the political process and end human rights abuses.

Paradoxically, the Burmese foreign minister never referred to such calls. Instead, he demanded the international community, notably the United States and EU countries, lift "unjustified" economic sanctions, which he said, "hurt the development and progress of Burma’s people."

Nyan Win noted that Burma’s constitution was approved by a national referendum in May this year—a referendum held without independent observers—and the next step on the junta's "roadmap to democracy" would take place with national elections in 2010.

Obliquely responding to the General Assembly ministers, he said only that "the international community can best assist Myanmar's [Burma’s] democratization process by respecting the will of its people."

Respecting the will of the Burmese people?

In fact, the Burmese regime has jailed nearly 2,000 political prisoners, along with the world's only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize recipient.
If the regime has the will to promote a genuine transition to an elected civilian government, now is the time to create the political preconditions to allow the public to participate in the process without restraint.

Included in the process would be the release of all political prisoners, including Suu Kyi and detained ethnic leaders.

Thus far, it’s clear the generals lack the will to compromise with opposition groups, most notably the National League for Democracy and its allies who swept the majority of parliamentary seats in the voided 1990 election.

For two decades, the needs of the Burmese people have gone unmet.

Now is the time for the UN, Asean and the international community to push the generals harder than ever before to open up the political, economic and social life of the country by participating in meaningful dialogue with opposition groups and ethnic leaders.