Burma junta frees and deports activist
Updated
Burma's military authorities have freed and deported a Burmese-American activist, who was sentenced last month to three years' jail.
Nyi Nyi Aung was convicted of forgery and immigration offences, and had only served five weeks of his sentence. He was a student activist in the 1988 Burma uprising against military rule and had returned to Burma several times, on an American passport.
Presenter: Sen Lam
Speakers: Jennifer Quigley, Advocacy Director US Burma Campaign
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QUIGLEY: Yes, the regime has sort of this international game plan, whenever they have bad news that they need to release to the international community, in this case the release of their election laws last year, I mean last week, that would increase international pressure, they always need something to help relieve international pressure and so we sort of expected the high profile release of a political prisoner following the release of their election laws and so Nyi Nyi Aung was sort of the prisoner that they had, that would be the most high profiled to alleviate international pressure.
LAM: Well, there are an estimated 2,000 prisoners still in Burmese jails, many of whom prisoners of conscience. Are you hopeful that more may be released in the lead up to the polls?
QUIGLEY: No, I mean, the only thing that we could foresee happening is that once the election date is announced, within say the two weeks prior to that, is sort of the only time we can see them releasing political prisoners, because it would alleviate international pressure, but not give them enough time to actually participate in the elections in a meaningful way.
LAM: As you say, the Burmese junta has a record of releasing prisoners when they have bad news for the international community and you mentioned the new election law that was published last week. Now that law stated that anyone whose been in jail, in Burma, cannot run in the general elections. Doesn't that effectively rule out most of the Opposition NLD's senior people?
QUIGLEY: Yes, not only does it rule out that there are 500 NLD members that are political prisoners right now. It means that political parties also have to expel any of those people from their political party and which means the NLD right now is faced with the decision to expel Aung San Suu Kyi and the 500 members of the NLD imprisoned from its party if they are to partake in this election.
LAM: And from your reading of the situation, do you see the NLD, the National League for Democracy, intending to have a voice in the coming polls or do you think they would just ignore the process altogether?
QUIGLEY: Well, I know the NLD is scheduled to have a meeting. I believe it is either March 28th or March 29th to make their decision, and so the Central Committee, it's 108 member body of the NLD will come and make that decision on that date. So I think in a few days time, we will not know whether the NLD will choose to stand in the election or refuse, because 500 of its party members would not be able to participate, including Aung San Suu Kyi.
LAM: Well Jennifer, as you pointed out, the new election laws were widely criticised in the international arena. But are sanctions against the military junta and against the generals in the military government, are the sanctions having any impact at all on the generals?
QUIGLEY: Well, I mean its a mixed bag. I mean we have not sort of seen the result that we would like to see, which is of course regime change, but we have seen some sort of impact in the sense that it is sort of a state that is cash strapped. Some of the generals keep the oil and gas money offshore in separate bank accounts and so the state itself has been suffering as a result and you saw a couple of weeks ago, they started selling off some state assets for capital and I think that is sort of showing the kind of impact of their economic mismanagement as well as the impact sanctions are having.
LAM: And just finally Jennifer, what can the international community do? Indeed, what can the US Congress do? Is it doing enough to hold the Burmese generals accountable?
QUIGLEY: Well, there is two things that we are sort of pushing for the most. One is targeted financial sanctions against the banks, the international banks, that hold this money that is really an asset of the Burmese people, the gas revenue that they have received and is being held in bank accounts offshore. And the second thing that we are pushing is what UN special rapporteur for the Human rights situation in Myanamar called for last week, which was an international United Nations led commission of inquiry towards the referral of the international criminal court. The regime has got away with a lot and it is at a time that they be held accountable for that.
