Dear Prime Minister
Not long before your 1997 election victory, you wrote a personal letter to Burmese pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi. In that letter you invited her to Labour’s pre-election party conference. You said: “While I appreciate the difficulties that you may have in leaving Burma, we would be greatly honoured if you were able to attend. The Labour Party has been a consistent supporter of the Burmese democracy movement. And we have been deeply impressed by your own personal role as leader of that movement. Your courage and dignity have been an inspiration to democrats everywhere.” She was unable to attend then and she would be unable to attend now.
Unfortunately, the years have passed and Aung San Suu Kyi’s struggle against one of the worst tyrannies of our time continues. Today her conviction remains unwavering despite the depth of personal sacrifice she has had to endure. For this reason, many around the world see her as Asia’s Mandela. Her incredible story speaks for itself.
Her charisma and leadership carried her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), to an internationally unprecedented landslide in Burma’s 1990 election. The NLD won 82% of the seats, and if you add the other democratic parties allied to the NLD, the figure rises to 91%. There can be no doubt as to the singular and categorical rejection the people of Burma gave to the country’s ruling military. The regime has never honoured the result, and widespread and systematic persecution of Burma’s democrats and Burma’s people has continued ever since.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s personal struggle has been as epic as the tumultuous history of Burma’s national politics. She has been separated from her family for most of the last 16 years. Her husband, British academic Michael Aris, was denied a visa and a final farewell to his wife, as he struggled the last months of his life against cancer. In May 2003, during a brief period of freedom, her motorcade was attacked by the regime’s militia. Her unarmed supporters were attacked with clubs and iron rods. Women were stripped naked and beaten to the ground. Up to a hundred were thought to have been killed in the massacre. Aung San Suu Kyi was arrested once again and has been in detention ever since. The periods of detention she has now endured add up to almost 10 years of captivity. She will be spending her 60th birthday on June 19th surrounded by armed soldiers, her phone cut, denied visitors, in what can only be described as solitary confinement.
You start to understand why she will not yield to this regime when you look at the nature of its rule. A regime incompetent in every aspect of government is efficient in just one department – the administration of brutality. Its record includes: rape as a weapon of war against ethnic women and children; forcing millions into slave labour, described by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) as a ‘crime against humanity’; the detention of 1,350 political prisoners, many of whom are routinely tortured; between 600,000 and one million internally displaced people forced from their lands; and the conscription of more child soldiers than any other country in the world.
In an interview, she was questioned about her detention. She replied, that she has never considered herself a prisoner, and pointing to her head explained “because I have always been free here”. She has always insisted that she has made no sacrifices, but instead made choices of her own free will. And whenever asked about the difficulties she has faced, has redirected attention onto her colleagues languishing in Burma’s prisons and the families across that land that have been wrenched apart by the military dictatorship.
Prime Minister, you rightfully recognised the importance of Aung San Suu Kyi not only as a remarkable democrat, but as an inspiration to democrats around the world. If we are truly committed to the cause of liberty, we must give it much greater backing. Surely we must do all that we possibly can for those at the front line in the struggle for justice against tyranny. And if there is one person at the moment that symbolises that struggle for millions around the world, it is a Burmese woman whose voice is not silenced by an army, whose determination is unconstrained by violence and whose stand we have yet to give the support it deserves. Prime Minister, you ended your letter to Aung San Suu Kyi saying: “We hope that growing international opposition to the Burmese regime will strengthen your position and bring an early restoration of democratic government.” It is clear that international opposition to the regime has lacked the necessary strength of conviction. We urge you to do all you can for Aung San Suu Kyi’s freedom and the freedom of her people.
Yours sincerely
Glenys Kinnock MEP
Vera Baird MP, Chair All-Party Parliamentary Group for Democracy In Burma
Khin Wynn Nwe, Women of Burma UK
Prunella Scales, Actress
Marie O’Riordan, Editor, Marie Claire
Jo Brand, Comedian
Nita Yin Yin May, Women of Burma UK
Anna Roberts, Campaigns Manager, Burma Campaign UK