Nine Nobel Peace Prize recipients today released a public statement calling for the international community and the United Nations Security Council to impose arms embargoes on the Southeast Asian country of Burma. The move comes after the country’s ruling military regime carried out a massive crackdown on demonstrating Buddhist monks and civilians in October 2007. The regime has since launched a nationwide dragnet, arresting and torturing thousands of dissidents.
Reads the statement: “We appeal to the members of the Security Council, and the international community, to take action quickly on measures that will prevent the sale of arms to the Burmese military, including a ban on banking transactions targeting top Burmese leaders, as well as state and private entities that support the government’s weapons trade.”
The statement was issued by Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu and signed by his holiness the Dalai Lama, Shirin Ebadi, Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Mairead Maguire, Rigoberta Menchu Tum, Prof. Elie Wiesel, Betty Williams and Jody Williams.
In 2006, Burma was voted onto the permanent agenda of the UN security council for the first time in history, On October 11th 2007 the UN security council issued its first-ever Presidential Statement on Burma, calling on Burma’s military regime to “…create the necessary conditions for a genuine dialogue with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and all concerned parties and ethnic groups in order to achieve an inclusive national reconciliation with the direct support of the United Nations.
Burma’s military regime has defied the Council’s demands, refusing to release political prisoners and instead proceeding with a vote on new constitution written by hand-picked delegates of the military regime.
“The UN Security Council imposed arms embargoes on apartheid South Africa after the Sharpeville Massacre and Soweto uprising. “ Now it is time for the UN and individual countries to immediately impose arms embargoes and targeted banking sanctions on Burma following the Saffron Massacre,” said Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu. “ The election promised by the military regime is a complete sham,” he added.
The call by the Nobel laureates reflects the desires of Burma’s democracy movement inside the country. Two leading organizations, the 88 Generation Students and the All Burma Monks Alliance recently issued statements rejecting the referendum of the military regime and calling for arms embargoes and banking sanctions.
Burma is ruled by one of the world’s most brutal military regimes. The regime has incarcerated Aung San Suu Kyi, the world’s only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize recipient. Nearly 2,000 political prisoners including hundreds of Buddhist monks are locked up. Meanwhile, the military regime has destroyed 3,200 ethnic minority villages in eastern Burma and hundreds of thousands of villagers to flee their homes as refugees and internally displaced.
According to the respected arms sales monitoring organization, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, China is the leading supplier of arms to Burma’s military regime. Others include Ukraine, Poland, India and Russia.
The Statement reads:
NOBEL LAUREATE APPEAL –
The peaceful, nonviolent marches by the Burmese Buddhist monks in 2007 asking for peace and dialogue towards a political settlement of the problems confronting that country galvanized the attention of the international community. They marched to support the lay population who publicly and bravely protested grievances against the regime. We watched in horror as their peaceful overtures were met with a violent crackdown by Burma’s military junta led by General Than Shwe. The subsequent dragnet he ordered has resulted in arrests, torture, and killings that continue to this very day.
In spite of the overwhelming desire of the Burmese people for political change the regime has made no overtures and no progress on national reconciliation. They continue their refusal to engage the Burmese people and ethnic groups in substantive, meaningful dialogue. We stand firmly in support of our fellow Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and have repeatedly called for her release, as well as the release of Buddhist monks and all political prisoners in Burma. The regime’s “roadmap” and decades-long constitution process is flawed: it does not include participation of the National League for Democracy. The NLD and Burma’s ethnic nationalities must play an inclusive role in determining a negotiated settlement and transition to democracy.
We can not, and we will not forget the events of the Saffron Revolution and the courage of the Burmese people in asserting their right to live in peace and freedom. Despite decades of repression and in a world wracked by violence, their peaceful demonstrations represent a model for the proper and rightful expression of political dissent of which they are entitled.
Many of the arms used by Burma’s military regime to retain its hold on power have been sold to the regime by foreign governments. This is not acceptable – no nation should sell arms to a regime that uses weapons exclusively against its own people. We call upon the international community to actively work to implement arms embargoes against the regime. Further, we appeal to the members of the Security Council, and the international community, to take action quickly on measures that will prevent the sale of arms to the Burmese military, including a ban on banking transactions targeting top Burmese leaders, as well as state and private entities that support the government’s weapons trade.
S/agreed:
Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu and
His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Shirin Ebadi
Adolfo Perez Esquivel
Mairead Maguire
Rigoberta Menchu Tum
Prof. Elie Wiesel
Betty Williams
Jody Williams