The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been following with deep
concern and interest the tense situation in Burma since last
Wednesday, 15 August 2007, when the military government dramatically
increased the costs of all vehicle fuels by up to five times the
previous level, without prior announcement. The price increases were
immediately passed on to passengers on public transport and shortly
thereafter the prices of basic food items, including rice, salt and
oil, also began to shoot up.
The increasing costs will be incredibly difficult for millions in the
country to bear. The majority of people in Burma are already living
from day to day, and countless numbers in rural areas are just a step
away from starvation. The International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC) in June took the remarkable step of publicly chastising the
regime for the “immense suffering” it is causing to people in
outlying regions. Even in towns and cities, ordinary persons are
finding it harder and harder to scrape together a living. Millions
more have gone to Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and the high seas to
earn any kind of wage under whatever terms and conditions offered.
So it is not surprising that despite the risks, people have quickly
started going to the streets in protest. On August 19 around 500
persons marched some nine kilometres through Rangoon to demand that
the price increases be revoked. On August 21 some hundreds more
marched, and were this time met by members of the
government-organised Swan-arshin: gangs of thugs armed with sticks
and slingshots acting as proxies for the security forces, about which
the AHRC has raised the alarm in a number of recent statement and
appeals. As on the previous occasion, plainclothes police and
intelligence officers stood on the sidelines and took photographs and
video footage of the marchers.
On the night of August 21, dozens of persons who had led the protests
were reportedly arrested at their houses. Many are veterans of the
historic 1988 uprising who had been released from prison only in
recent years. According to an article in the state media that
appeared to have been written even before or during the operation,
they had been taken into custody and were being interrogated for
attempting to disrupt the national convention to write a new
constitution, which has been running since 1994. Perversely, the
article blamed the detainees for provoking the public by “taking
advantage” of the increased fuel prices. Meanwhile, special branch
police were reportedly waiting outside the houses of other persons to
arrest them if they attempted to go on the streets.
But in a sign of the extent to which the government has forced its
people into a showdown despite the arrests, a further protest went
ahead as planned today, August 22. According to reports coming in
from Rangoon, a group of at least 300, most women, again marched for
two hours before being blocked around midday local time by
Swan-arshin, who forced seven of them into vehicles and drove them
away. Again the demonstrators were reportedly met by cheers and
applause from onlookers. Two Buddhist monks involved in the protests
were also said to have been forced into a vehicle and driven away
from a separate location.
According to a separate item on the Delhi-based Mizzima news website,
a previously unknown group has warned that the price hike is part of a
deliberate strategy by the regime to provoke a confrontation with the
public and launch a new crackdown. The group reportedly warned people
not to fall into a trap by protesting.
But when people’s day-to-day lives are so grievously affected by the
actions of the state as in Burma today, what are they to do if not
protest? How much longer are they supposed to bear its iniquities?
What should they do instead? The extent to which the demonstrators’
courageous steps are the surface manifestation of far-reaching and
deep anger and frustration can be seen by the waving, cheering and
tooting car horns in support by passers-by, despite the presence of
intelligence and security officials. Indeed, from the accounts of
onlookers, many if not most of the protestors have not been hardened
activists but ordinary persons who have seen the others walking and
spontaneously joined.
The AHRC has since the 1990s pointed to the direct links between
Burma’s militarisation and its impoverishment. Today it is more
militarised and impoverished than ever. It is also probably closer to
the sort of conditions that existed prior to the 1988 uprising than at
any other time in the last decade. Whether or not the army has a
strategy to provoke protest, once begun, public actions take on a
life of their own: they are no one’s to control and determine, least
of all the generals. The defeat of the dictatorial monarchy in Nepal
last year after massive street protests occurred with a speed and in
a manner that no one had predicted; the expectations of the army
there that it too could control the situation proved completely
unfounded. Likewise, the recent huge outpouring of support for the
chief justice of Pakistan in his battle against yet another Asian
military dictatorship took everyone by surprise, not least of all,
its president-cum-army commander. So too is Burma now full of both
uncertainty and possibility.
The Asian Human Rights Commission today expresses its loud and
unequivocal solidarity with the people of Burma. It calls on them to
be aware that their suffering and struggle are known to the outside
world: unlike twenty years ago, their protests will not be too little
heard until it is too late. What happens in Rangoon, Mandalay, Pegu,
Taunggyi, Bassein, Moulmein or Myitkyina is now known within minutes
throughout the world. The AHRC will for its part do all it can to
document, report and advocate on these events as quickly and widely
as possible.
The AHRC also especially calls upon the United Nations, in particular
its secretary general, world leaders and all concerned persons
throughout the world to take this opportunity to speak and act
vigorously in support of the people of Burma, who have been forced to
put up with too much for far too long. The time for diplomatic
niceties and talk about acknowledging pretended steps towards reform
is gone. In fact, it was long gone, but the latest extraordinary
price increases, threats to the livelihoods of millions throughout
the country, ongoing military offensives against entire populations
in outlying regions, shutdown of the ICRC operations and arrests and
detentions of persons who have done nothing more than walk down a
street to say that they can’t afford to pay for the junta’s
incompetence and mismanagement surely demand an unequivocal and
lasting international response. The victory of the people of Nepal
against their dictatorship was due in large part to the concern and
direct interventions of the global community: will it not do as much
for the fifty millions in Burma?
Labels: Asian Human Rights Commission, English, Statement
