BURMA: Pressure mounts on military junta
Updated
Pressure is mounting on Burma's military regime to improve on its human rights record and restore democracy, as the United Nations has confirmed that it will send its special envoy to the Southeast Asian nation in October.
SAWLANI: Burma was the target of much criticism from US president George Bush and Southeast Asian diplomats during the APEC summit in Sydney last week. President Bush has called on China and India to to help pressure Burma at the APEC summit last week he made his position clear.
BUSH: We must press the regime in Burma to stop arresting and harassing and assaulting pro-democracy activists for organising or participating in peaceful demonstrations. It must stop its intimidation of these citizens who are promoting democracy and human rights.
SAWLANI: Now, United Nations's secretary general Ban Ki Moon says he hopes the Burmese government will fully democratise the country, and deal with its poor human rights record.
Former Australian Ambassador to Burma, Trevor Wilson:
WILSON: Burma does not allow very much freedom of political expression at all and this is really the issue about human rights abuses.
SAWLANI: Ban Ki Moon is sending his special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, to Burma in October.
But Carl Thayer, professor of politics at the Australian defence force academy says his visit will not have any significant impact.
THAYER: It's going to have absolutely no impact whatsoever. The timing of the visit's all wrong. Myanmar is facing protests from August from price fuel rises, it's decided to crackdown both on those protestors and on the group of 1988 student's group protestors who harkened back to the original pro-democracy movement. It's singled out in a regime directive that Aung San Suu Kyi and her NLD are behind all this. So the Secretary General's envoy is going to arrive in a very bad political atmosphere.
SAWLANI: Burma is a member of ASEAN, and ASEAN have vowed not to interfere in each other's domestic affairs. Professor Carl Thayer says that it is precisely the problem, and the reason why ASEAN has failed in its efforts to get Burma to democratise.
THAYER: Well ASEAN failed precisely because of the principle of non-intervention and disagreement amongst its members, politically closed states versus the more democratically inclined. For example about both violating that principle and taking it a step further and applying any meaningful sanctions. Most probably the last leader to influence Myanmar is to isolate it. So they have no effective means of influencing the regime. And once Myanmar decided to forego its possibility of heading the ASEAN standing committee several years ago, ASEAN lost any ability to influence the regime.
SAWLANI: Former ambassador to Burma, Trevor Wilson adds that ASEAN's failures stem from the fact that other member countries themselves have questionable human rights records, and that the association itself is not powerful enough politically.
WILSON: Some ASEAN countries there are doubtful human rights practices in some countries, so it's a question then of ASEAN having double standards. Collectively of course ASEAN doesn't have anything like the sort of political clout or influence that China and India have.
SAWLANI: He welcomes the move by the US and Indonesia to get China and India to help address the problems in Burma. He says the two countries have more power than ASEAN to influence outcomes in the country.
WILSON: I think it would be very helpful for the Burmese people as well if India and China made their views known a little bit more clearly. China and India are the two countries that have a very large and growing relationship with Burma. Obviously they are the countries that you'll have to count on if you wanted international pressure or international representations to be made.
SAWLANI: But given China's and to a lesser extent India's human rights record, Professor Carl Thayer from the Australian defence formce academy says that neither country will force Burma into addressing human rights issues
THAYER: They're not going to pressure the State Peace and Development Council to improve human rights. India took that position many years ago but as China made inroads India changed its policy, got actively engaged to counter China and get cooperation in suppressing insurgents on its own frontier. Moving towards democracy risks further destabilising that country I suspect from the Chinese point of view.
SAWLANI: And former Ambassasdor Trevor Wilson agrees. Despite more pressure than ever being mounted on the Burmese government, he does not expect the militray regime to budge.
WILSON: I'm not convinced that they will. I hope that they will, but they've got a very long history of not being influenced by international opinion. I don't think that the US and Indonesian statements at APEC will have much impact at all on the Burmese government. The United Nations could have some impact. The UN envoy, Ambassador Gambari, has been there before and he's not been able to achieve anything very substantive. And one of the reasons is that he has not had sufficient support from members of the United Nations Security Council.
Presenter: Girish Sawlani
Speakers: Former Australian ambassador to Burma, Trevor Wilson; Carl Thayer, professor of politics at the Australian defence force academy
