Democracy in Burma Will Take Generations: UN Official

By LALIT K JHA / United Nations

The top UN human rights official on Burma told the UN General Assembly on Thursday that it will take generations to achieve full democracy in Burma because the junta is not ready for civilian rule.

"Restoration of democracy cannot happen overnight; it will take generations," Tomas Ojea Quintana, the special rapporteur on human rights in Burma, told a meeting of the General Assembly.

The statement, though disappointing to pro-democracy groups, pleased the Burmese permanent representative Ambassador Thaung Tun, who said in a statement: "I am encouraged by Quintana's openness and candor in highlighting the fact that Myanmar [Burma] is going through a unique moment in history."

Quintana, who made his first trip to Burma in August and intends to visit the country by the end of the year, later told UN reporters that his assessment that it would take generation for the restoration of full democracy in Burma is based on his interaction with the junta leaders, political prisoners and the political realities.

"To get a civil government will take time. They (the junta) are not prepared for that. They are prepared for war, not for a civil government," Quintana told reporters when asked about his statement in the General Assembly.

"Obviously the restoration of democracy would take time because all the government officials are monitored by the military,” he said.

Serving in an independent and unpaid capacity, Quintana, an Argentine lawyer, said he has proposed four core human rights elements for completion by the government before the proposed junta elections in 2010.

These include revision of domestic laws to ensure their compliance with human rights; progressive release of all prisoners of conscience; and reform of the military and independent judiciary. He said he has asked the government to begin reviewing the laws that limited human rights, such as freedom of expression.

Quintana said his first visit to Burma in August lasted only four days and was a difficult one. "The government didn't know me […] it was difficult to go into the prison," he said. But the visit had been very important, he said, and included three hours of private meetings with detainees.

"The prisoners were very open with me. It gave me a lot of sense of what was going on in the country," he said. The visit had also given him and the various players in the country an opportunity to get to know each other.

Observing that violation of human rights continue, the UN expert said the continued detention of the popular Burmese leader, Aung San Suu Kyi is arbitrary and urged the military junta to release her as soon as possible.

At the same time, Quintana said he was not confident that she would be released in the near future. "There is no access to fair justice (to her),"he said. "I am trying to find strategies to make the Government understand that she is under arbitrary arrest, but I do not have a lot of expectations about that," he said.

Although encouraged by the September release of seven prisoners of conscience, Quintana said 2,000 other political prisoners remained in institutions around the country. Those people, who had been imprisoned for expressing themselves, should be participating in the process that would lead to the 2010 elections, he said.