Current State of Affairs BURMA

This insight was prepared by Myo Thien, director of the Burma Democratic Concerns.
He compared the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights articles to
Burma’s on going violations under the stewardship of General Than Shwe. This is
the current state of affairs within the borders of Burma.

Burmese Military Regime’s Abuses of Human Rights

1. All Burmese people are not born free and equal in dignity and rights. They
are born under the prison like situation and even our leader, Aung San Suu Kyi
once said that “We are prisoners in our own country”. Burmese people are starving,
malnutrition and no place for reason and conscience for citizen of Burma. Motto of
military government is that “I don’t want to know there is a hole in water bottle
but I just want to have water” which reflect the tyranny, ignorant and negligence
of junta’s motive toward public. Regime is ruling the country with divide and rule
policy by favoring its cronies and extremely suppressing dissidents.

2. Burmese citizens do not have all the rights and freedom set forth in
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They are discriminated due to their race,
colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social
origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made
on the basis of the political, jurisdictional. Ethnics people are denied their
rights of autonomy and their languages are not promoted equally, women rights are
denied systematically, democracy activists are tortured, passed down lengthy
prison sentences and denied medical treatment for ailing political prisoners.
Peasants and farmers are 70% of the population but military regime treated them
like nothing more than human robots and denied all the rights they deserve to
have. Above all, they are the most oppressed people in Burma and international
community always overlook their welfare as they are mostly populated inside
central Burma where they don’t have any opportunity to be seen by outside world
and do not have opportunity to get in touch with neighboring countries. They are
the most forgotten people of Burma and social, educational and health care
standard they received are lower than world’s lowest standard.

3. No one has the right to life, liberty, and security of person in Burma.
Peaceful demonstrators who demand for human rights and freedom are shot dead by
military regime and prisoners are tortured; place them in solitary confinement,
and forced to work in very harsh weather, location and not provided with enough
nutrition.

4. Burmese military regime treated all the prisoners including political

prisoners as if they are the slaves. They do not have proper rights in the prison
and systematically designed to treat them with degrading and humiliating
treatments. Food they fed is worse than animal food and do not have mattress or
bed in the prison. They are forced to sleep on the concrete floor and in some
places where temperature is below zero and inmates are forced to live without
having enough covers. Military regime is even treating soldiers as the
domesticated slaves who they use to kill its own people and attack ethnics
nationalities. Apart from top brass generals and their cronies who can enjoy
lavish life style and exploit country’s resources, all the lower rank soldiers are
brain washed, controlled totally over their lives and put them in the position of
“kill or be killed”. They do not have any rights for reason and conscience by
molding them into the system “Army is a father and army is a mother” which can be
laterally translated into “We own you, you belong to us and you must loyal to us”.
They also instigate ultimate fear to the soldiers by “One blood, one voice, one
command” which can be laterally translated into “You must die for us whatever the
situation is, you must listen to us no matter what, and you must obey to us
without question”. Soldiers from Burmese army are too fearful to voice for their
right, life and to do the right things. They are exploited and manipulated by a
bunch of generals and they are no more than killing machines to protect their
cling into power.

5. Everyone shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman, or degrading

treatment or punishment. Abuses of military regime committed on political
dissidents, prisoners, forced labours, forced porter, forced sex slaves and
denying medical treatments to political prisoners who need urgent medical
treatment are well documented.

6. In Burma, not everyone is recognized as a person before the law as

military regime never treated dissidents as a person. They never hesitate to kill
anyone who opposes them.

7. The military regime maintained complete control over the legal system and
remained unbound by any legislation or constitutional provision for a fair trial,
due process of law or any other rights. Military regime is always above the law
and laws are what they said and what they wanted to do.

8. In Burma, military government denies basic rights to due process of law, a

fair and public trial in political cases. No trials of political prisoners were
open to the public, and in many cases reported details of the case were not even
available to the defendant’s family; such as the reason for arrest, sentencing or
location of the person detained. Frequently the detainee is not informed under
which section or article he or she is being detained. In addition, detainees
rarely have access to legal counsel or the opportunity to obtain release on bail.
The accused may be held for lengthy periods of time without any communication.
Trials for political detainees are normally held in courtrooms on prison
compounds, in a “special court”, and defendants are given little chance to speak,
are ignored when they do make statements and certainly are not permitted to
properly defend themselves. Even after being charged, political prisoners are
still denied the right to proper legal counsel.

9. The military maintains an extensive network of Military Intelligence (MI),

informers, police, militias such as Swan-Arr-Shin and Union Solidarity and
Development Association (USDA) members, ready to arrest anyone suspected of
holding or expressing anti-government opinions in Burma. Laws have been
established that criminalize freedom of thought, expression, association, assembly
and movement, thus legitimizing these arbitrary arrests and continued to
arbitrarily detain people across Burma for associating with opposition groups.
These types of detentions occurred commonly and in most cases individuals alleged
of such illegal association were detained, interrogated and many were tortured,
without warrant, charge or trial. In addition, thousands of democracy activists
got to flee from Burma as more and more worsen situation of their lives as
military put pressure on them persistently making them unable to stay inside the
country.

10. In Burma, the military maintained complete control over the legal system and
remained unbound by any legislation or constitutional provision for a fair trial,
due process of law or any other rights. Military government denies basic rights to
due process of law, a fair and public trial in political cases. No trials of
political prisoners were open to the public, and even defend counsels are
sentenced to prison because simply they defending for dissidents but accused them
of perverting the court. There are hundreds of well documented cases such as
military regime handed down very harsh and lengthy prison sentences to dissidents
because they are simply calling for national reconciliation in Burma peacefully
and respect for human rights and betterment of Burma.
11. Political dissidents are charged with the offences actually they do not commit
and presumed guilty before they are arrested. All the witnesses are created by
military intelligence and police. Especially they use the junta back militias such
as Swan-Arr-Shin and USDA members. Dissidents are handed down very heavy prison
sentences up to more than 100 years in prison each.

12. In Burma, no one shall not be private life, family, and home or correspondence
especially we can be seen in the cases of political dissidents. Military regime
ultimately and purposely attacks the honour and reputation of the dissidents.
There is no law in Burma to protect such abuses and military regime is the one who
commit such the culprit crime.

13. People of Burma do not have the freedom of movement. They need to show travel
pass or identity card even to travel within the country whenever they travel.
There are hundreds of check points and gates where everyone are searched, arrested
without warrant if someone is suspected of opposing the regime and interrogated.
Dissidents in Burma face very difficult situation if they want to leave Burma in
case of fleeing from persecuting. They are very unlikely to have passport legally
and any political dissidents in exile will be arrested in return and can be
sentenced to prison for life accusing them with various accounts such as
travelling without proper documents, passport, or entering or leaving illegally.

14. Burma is not a place for asylum as the human rights situation inside Burma is
escalating downhill very rapidly. People of Burma are facing persecution day in
and day out from checking visitors list at night if someone got caught without
reporting to authorities that they have the guest who will stay overnight can be
sentenced to prison to peaceful protester can be killed anytime anywhere because
of exercising their rights-freedom of expression. Dissidents are accused of
criminal offences which they do not commit. In Burma, possessing telephone or
facsimile or any electronics materials without registered with authorities can be
sentenced to prison for at least 10 years.

15. Burmese nationalities born in exile are denied to become a Burmese

nationality. Military regime arbitrarily denied rights of citizenship for some
ethnics people.

16. In Burma, not everyone can enjoy the right to marry and to found a family due
to race, nationality or religion. In some cases, military junta forced young women
to marry with soldiers. Families lives are wrecked by military offensive on
ethnics nationalities and families members are separated due to military
government locked dissidents in prisons. Thousands of people are forced to flee
and there are thousands of refugees in neighboring countries and in exile.

17. In Burma, military government confiscated lands, properties without

compensation and thousands of people are forced to relocate in satellite towns.

18. In Burma, freedom of thought, conscience and religion are systematically

suppressed and destroyed. Religious persecution is widespread. Military government
sees religion as the threat to its cling on power. Buddhist monks are killed,
arrested and imprisoned. Monasteries are raided, ransacked and closed. Practicing
the religions; Buddhism, Christianity, Islam and Hinduism, in Burma are highly
restricted.

19. Freedom of opinion and expression are non-existent in Burma and democratic
leaders calling for to have human rights are arrested, tortured and sentenced to
prisons.
20. Burmese citizens don’t have the right to peaceful assembly and association.
Military junta doesn’t allow to found any kind of association and peaceful
assembly. In 1988, military regime gunned down more than 10,000 peaceful
protesters simply calling for to have human rights and in 2007 Saffron revolution
junta killed non-violent protesters including Buddhist monks.

21. In Burma, power is centred on the ruling junta–the State Peace and Development
Council, or SPDC–which maintains strict authoritarian rule over the people of
Burma. Control is maintained through intimidation, the strict censuring of
information, repression of individual rights, and suppression of ethnic minority
groups. In Burma, people face complete lack of access to public services. Burmese
citizens are denied any state in the shaping of their future. The last free and
fair elections were held in 1990 and National League for Democracy led by Aung San
Suu Kyi won landslide victory. Military regime ignores to honour the elections
results and declared to hold another election in 2010- in which they set up
everything to win its backed party which will be face-off Union Solidarity and
Development Association.

22. The Burmese government spends seven times less on education than on the armed
forces. Since 1990, government expenditure on civilian education has dropped by 70
percent, and the most recent statistics indicate that spending on education is
currently equivalent to less than 1% of the GDP. According to World Bank figures,
Burma’s military government spends only $0.28 per year for every child in a public
school. In Burma, people face complete lack of access to basic social services
such as health services, and water sanitation. Under the military generals,
poverty has soared and corruption is growing. Burma spends less than $3 per person
per year on health and education – well below the World Health Organization
recommended level of $40 per person. The economic crisis and instability in Burma
is driving waves of Burmese children into hard labour, begging and the sex trade.
Burma is in the midst of a health and educational crisis.

23. Burma’s economic crisis continues to deepen under military rule. People earn
on a wage of around $1 a day. Unemployment is rising dramatically every month
while prices of consumer goods are escalating out of control. And the value of the
local kyat on the informal market continues to stumble. Living standards of many
Burmese are declining rapidly. One child in three under the age of five is already
suffering from malnutrition, less than 50 per cent of children will complete five
years of education according to UN reports. Laws have been established that
criminalize freedom of thought, expression, association, assembly and movement,
thus legitimizing these arbitrary arrests and continued to arbitrarily detain
people across Burma for associating with opposition groups. These types of
detentions occurred commonly and in most cases individuals alleged of such illegal
association were detained, interrogated and many were tortured, without warrant,
charge or trial. Decades of military mismanagement of the economy has resulted in
an appalling economic situation and is forcing the vast majority of parents to
rely on the contribution of their children working in order to feed their
families. The worst forms of child labour can be seen in Burma –in the army, the
construction industry, domestic work, and the mines or in different places.
Children are by no means exempt from the forced labour imposed on hundreds of
thousands of the Burmese population by military. Moreover, the military continues
to forcibly recruit children into the army, some as young as eleven years old.
There are 70, 000 children in the army and largest child soldiers in the world.
Military forced young girls to serve as porters and sometimes rape and used them
as sexual slaves. Trade unions or associations are forbidden in Burma.

24. The worst forms of child labour and forced labour can be seen in Burma –in the
army, the construction industry, domestic work, and the mines or in different
places. Children are by no means exempt from the forced labour imposed on hundreds
of thousands of the Burmese population by military. Moreover, the military
continues to forcibly recruit children into the army, some as young as eleven
years old. There are 70, 000 children in the army and largest child soldiers in
the world. Military forced young girls to serve as porters and sometimes rape and
used them as sexual slaves. A lot of children are forced to work as their parents
are too poor to cope with worsening economic crisis.

25. In Burma, complete lack of social security can be seen. The military junta
does not consider children’s development and welfare as a priority and used almost
half of the state budget is spent to the arm, leaving very little for the vital
education and health care systems. Most citizens of Burma are now struggle daily
to provide for their own needs and facing hardship. Increasingly women must work
to supplement family incomes. With a cultural tradition of maternal self-
abnegation, women consistently forego their own needs in order to give their
children first priority. Due to a combination of traditional Burmese customs and
the deteriorating economic situation, families are increasingly prioritizing the
rights of males over females to limited resources. As a result, women and girls
throughout Burma suffer from reduced access to nutritious food, medical services,
as well as vocational training and other educational opportunities.

Rural women are most affected by the nation’s instability. Women are forced to
work as porters and unpaid labourers for local SPDC military troops and are often
raped by soldiers. Ethnic women in areas where armed conflict with the junta is
ongoing face constant threats of attack, rape, torture, slavery, and murder by
SPDC soldiers. Women are often left alone to raise their children, while male
members of the community are taken as porters, serve as soldiers, or are killed.

In the government and civil service, the junta gives priority to those with
military experience, who are usually male and those who are from military
background. Many women who flee to Thailand end up in brothels as a result of
economic exigency.

26. Children under the age of 18 are about 40% of Burma population. The military
junta does not consider children’s development and welfare as a priority and used
almost half of the state budget is spent to the arm, leaving very little for the
vital education and health care systems. Decades of military mismanagement of the
economy has resulted in an appalling economic situation and is forcing the vast
majority of parents to rely on the contribution of their children working in order
to feed their families.

27. In Burma, military regimes completely control over everything including

cultural life of the community and they are always above the law.

28. In Burma, everyone cannot be fully realized UDHR in which the rights and
freedoms set forth to a social and international order as military government
systematically control and rule the country with total authority.

29. Freedom of expression and freedom of association are non-existent and Burmese
citizens are denied any state in the shaping of their future. We have been under
military rule for 20 years. Military regime abuses all the rights of its own
citizens.

30. The people of Burma have been suffering under one of the world’s most brutal
and repressive regime. The military regime uses murder, torture, rape, political
imprisonment and forced labour as practices for ruling the citizens of Burma.
Following a sharp increase of fuel prices on August 15, 2007, pro democracy groups
led by students began a series of peaceful marches and demonstrations to protest
the failing economic situation in Burma. The regime immediately responded by
arbitrarily detaining pro democracy activists. As popular dissatisfaction spread,
Buddhist monks began leading peaceful marches together with public and the regime
violently crackdown by shooting, beating and arresting thousands of monks, pro
democracy activists, onlookers and killing dozens. Currently, there are more than
2000 political prisoners in Burma and regime continues to arrest democratic
dissident, torture and sentence to prison.

In Burma, power is centred on the ruling junta–the State Peace and Development
Council, or SPDC–which maintains strict authoritarian rule over the people of
Burma. Control is maintained through intimidation, the strict censuring of
information, repression of individual rights, and suppression of ethnic minority
groups. To avoid doing genuine dialogue with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the regime is
using one of the delaying tactics- buying times. They are waiting for another
crisis happen in another part of the world and if the crisis happens, the
attention on Burma from international community will divert to that crisis and
Burma will go back to status quo.

In February 2008, the regime announced the plan to hold the referendum in May 2008
following the election by 2010. No transparency in referendum process and adopted
sham constitution unilaterally drawn by its handpicked delegations by 14 years
long even in the mist of the cyclone Nargis disaster which left 200,000 dead and
more than 2 million people displaced. In addition, the military regime received
wide-spread criticisms from both domestic and international community because of
failing to honour 1990 election result and plan to hold another election in 2010.