|
21st June 2010
By John O’Shea
THE Burmese Junta continues to slap
the face of the world with its bullying of Nobel laureate Aung San
Suu Kyi, and the world continues to turn the other cheek.
The response of the international community to the unlawful incarceration
of this hero of democracy is shameful and humiliating, it amounts
to moaning a little louder every time she is kicked. With each new
injustice Ms Suu Kyi - a peace activist towers over the self-appointed
generals showing them up to be the political pygmies that they are.
Aung will be 65 on June 19 and the
more indignities the Junta heaps upon her the more they shrink and
her reputation grows. The generals have succeeded in keeping Su
Kyi off the political pitch for the country’s next election.
Her only “crime” to date - for which she has already
served 20 years under house arrest – was that she earned the
right to be the democratically elected leader of Burma back in 1990.
When that sentence was almost up, the prosecution manipulated a
visit by an uninvited guest US citizen John Yettaw's for a two-day
stay at Suu Kyi's home, even to claim that she had breached the
terms of her house arrest.
The trumped up charge was as clumsily fabricated as all the other
claims made against her. There is nothing that the junta will not
do to keep her out of circulation ahead of the polls. Despite this,
her faith in democracy has never wavered despite being separated
from her late husband and children.
The world does not want for agencies and organisations that champion
human rights, nor leaders who see themselves as custodians of equality
and the right to be free.
One has to wonder how reassuring this must be for Ms Suu Kyi as
she contemplates a further 18 months locked in her home at the tender
mercies of the discredited junta which carries on with impunity.
Only the French have ever actually
been bold enough to call the treatment of Aung Suu Kyi for what
it is. Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner baldly stated what many
have been silently thinking about the tragedy in Burma. He said
countries on the UN Security Council that did not agree to pressure
Burma were guilty of "cowardice."
It is time that the international community
faced up to the fact that there is a very dark hand at work in Burma.
When cyclone Nargis struck and some 134,000 souls perished in Burma,
the generals turned away aid-laden US naval ships that had come
to help as people starved to death.
A potential loss of face was seen as more important than loss of
life, and the averting of a humanitarian catastrophe. Cold commercial
fears; namely anxiety over offending China and thus being excluded
from the huge contracts that the mandarins have within their control
as the country emerges as a new economic powerhouse, are the reason
for the failure to stand up to the Junta.
In 2005, the UN adopted a declaration
in New York which said that the international community had a “responsibility”
to act to prevent crimes against humanity. If what is being visited
on Aung is not such a crime then it is difficult to imagine what
is. So the UN has the power to act if the international community
has the will.
The decision by US Senator Jim Webb
to abruptly cancel his planned visit to the military-ruled country
recently because of alarm about the country's alleged nuclear cooperation
with North Korea should further concentrate hearts and minds on
the threat of the generals and their contempt for world opinion
and international justice.
Senator Webb, chairman of the Senate subcommittee on East Asia and
Pacific, said his visit would be "unwise" having learned
of a report containing new allegations that Burma was seeking North
Korea’s help in developing a nuclear programme.
The United States believes North Korea has previously shipped arms
to Myanmar, in defiance of another UN Security Council Resolution
-1874 – yet what is being done about it?
When Senator Webb visited the country last year the visit was hailed
as a success for the junta. US Assistant Secretary of State Kurt
Campbell, Washington's top official for East Asia, visited Burma
last month, and expressed "profound disappointment" at
the regime's approach to its much-derided election scheduled this
year.
Ms Suu Kyi would probably see it as more than “disappointing”
that she will spend yet another birthday locked up. Just like Nelson
Mandela who spent 27 years in jail while world leaders stayed silent,
Ms Aung’s plight is being scandalously ignored. When Mr Mandela
was finally released there was a rush by the great and the powerful
to invite him to the top tables to bask in his reflected prestige.
With so few true heroes to look up to, it may not be so surprising
that we have forgotten how to treat them; but surely we owe them
more than hypocritical posturing?
© 2010 The Irish Examiner
|
