As concerns grow for the health of Aung San Suu Kyi following reports she is on hunger strike, the Burma Campaign UK today called for the UN Security Council to take action.
“Britain has just taken over as chair of the Security Council,” said John Jackson, Director of the Burma Campaign UK. “They must use this position to put Burma on the agenda.”
The Burma Campaign UK is calling for a ban on arms and new investment to Burma, and a ban on Burmese exports of oil, gas, gems, garments, minerals and timber. These sectors provide the regime with the majority of its income. Aung San Suu Kyi has been calling for sanctions for years, but the US is the only country that has responded to her call. Possible European Union sanctions are being blocked by Germany.
“If Aung San Suu Kyi is on hunger strike it is a last resort as she has been abandoned by the UN,” says John Jackson. “In the three months since her arrest the UN Security Council has taken no firm action. Her arrest and the massacre of up to one hundred of her supporters has only been discussed for a few minutes under ‘any other business’. It’s a disgrace.”
At the weekend Burma’s new Prime Minister, Gen Khin Nyunt, announced that a national convention to establish a new constitution that would lead to fresh elections would be reconvened. As the National League for Democracy (NLD) is not part of the convention the announcement has been seen as an attempt to sideline the democracy movement.
In the past 15 years the regime in Burma has been responsible for systematic persecution of ethnic minorities, massacres of thousands of people, ignoring the results of the 1990 elections, the imprisonment of thousands of political prisoners, mass use of slave labour, rape as a weapon of war, murder, torture, corruption and impoverishing its own population. The UN has taken no action against the dictatorship. There is not even a UN arms embargo.
“You have to wonder what it will take for the UN to act,” says Jackson. “The regime has already tried to kill Aung San Suu Kyi once this year. If the UN doesn’t act soon it could be too late.”
Bono, Bob Geldof, and Chris Martin from Coldplay are backing a joint campaign by music television station MTV and the Burma Campaign UK to free Aung San Suu Kyi. MTV are broadcasting 60 second campaign films asking people to visit http://www.mtvburmaaction.com and send a campaign email to the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.
For more information contact John Jackson, Director of Burma Campaign UK, or Mark Farmaner, Media Officer, on 020 7281 7377