Nobel Women's Initiative

"I think this is the case in the great majority of authoritarian states: On the surface, because of repression, everything seems frozen, but when the sun comes out and the ice melts, you find that there was a lot of life underneath all along."     
-Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi in 1997

In May 1990, the Burmese government held free elections for the first time in almost 30 years. The National League for Democracy (NLD), the party founded and led by Aung San Suu Kyi, won about 80% of the vote. However, instead of honouring the democratic outcome of these elections, the regime refused to step down. The military dictatorship also sentenced Suu Kyi to strict house arrest, and she has remained confined for almost 14 of the past 19 years. In 1991, the international community awarded Aung San Suu Kyi the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her work in the non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights in Burma

SPDC ARMY

Since 1996, the SPDC Army has destroyed over 3,000 villages and recruited an estimated 70,000 children as soldiers, representing 20% of Burma’s total military personnel. The military uses landmines to force ethnic minority residents from their homes and to prevent them from returning. In 2007, landmines killed and injured 438 people, including villagers used by the military as human landmine detectors.

The long-standing and brutal tradition of forced labor continues today in Burma, despite two Orders adopted by the SPDC outlawing the practice. Villagers, including children, are forced to work either without pay or for little pay constructing and repairing military camps and facilities, serving as guides, messenger, and cooks, and working on national and local infrastructure projects.

Violence against girls and women in all ethnic minority populations has been well documented, especially the extent to which SPDC military have systematically used rape as a tool of war. The continued rape of ethnic minority girls and women has been acknowledged by governments and international organizations around the world, but there has been little effort to prosecute, protect or offer services to those victimized in Burma or neighbouring countries.

The targeting of ethnic minorities by the Burmese military junta produces vast numbers of refugees. Over 1 million have fled Burma in search of asylum, with another half million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Eastern Myanmar. The SPDC does not recognize the existence of IDPs and places undue restrictions and limitations on access and assistance to these areas. In addition, neighbouring countries have refused to recognize the refugee crisis, and as a result, all persons fleeing Burma into neighbouring countries in recent years are simply left to their own resources to work and survive as undocumented (‘illegal’) migrants.

Since early 1989, nearly all ethnic armed groups have entered into ceasefire agreements with the SPDC – leaving only three main groups still officially at war. However, sixty years of continuous conflict and human rights abuses have led to divisions and suspicion between groups. The ethnic groups who have reached ceasefire agreements with the SPDC have been largely cut off from aid. Consequently, the majority of ethnic nationalities live with limited access to food, health care and education, regardless of their political alliances.

As of February 2009, Amnesty International reports that there are more than 2,100 known political prisoners in Burma, many of whom were arrested without being shown a warrant and are being held without knowing the charges against them. Burmese law allows for the detention of political activists without charge or trial for up to 5 years. Several leaders of ethnic political parties have been detained and given extraordinarily severe prison terms of 100 years or more. Of the 392 NLD MPs elected in 1990, 312 have been imprisoned (at some point), died, or gone into exile. Under a provision of the new draft constitution which bans former ‘convicts’ from standing for election, only the remaining 80 MPs will be permitted to stand in any future elections.

INTERNATIONAL ACTIONS

In September 2006 the United Nations Security Council placed Burma on its formal agenda for the first time in history. Unfortunately, in early 2007 a resolution urging Burma's military government to release all political prisoners and take immediate steps towards democracy was vetoed by China and Russia, and opposed by South Africa.

2007 SAFFRON REVOLUTION

In mid-August 2007 Burma's military regime unleashed the latest crackdown on its citizens' long-standing nonviolent resistance movement. On August 15th the government implemented a massive hike in fuel prices, creating a dire situation for the country’s poor. Courageous activists responded to the unbearable costs by staging protests reported to be the largest in a decade. In September, thousands of monks joined the civilian protest by taking to the streets in cities across Burma. Protests grew to the largest public demonstrations since the 1988 uprising, on some days swelling to more than 100,000 people. Women played a significant role in the demonstrations, as they have throughout Burma's struggle for democracy.

The military regime brutally responded to this popular uprising by making thousands of arrests. Government and international leaders, NGO’s, and international citizens spoke out against the crackdown and the United Nations Security Council issued, for the first time, a Presidential Statement on the situation in Burma. An emergency meeting of the Human Rights Council resulted in a resolution condemning the atrocities committed by the junta and urging an immediate investigation.

NEW CONSTITUTION & CYCLONE NARGIS

In February 2008 it was announced that a final draft of a new constitution had been completed, authored by a 54-person Commission. A referendum vote would determine whether or not the people will adopt the new draft constitution. Due to concerns about representation and due process, opposition groups inside and outside the country called for a ‘no’ vote, and there were demonstrations and arrests, in Rangoon and elsewhere, as people campaigned against the unrepresentative constitution and the problematic referendum.

Tropical Cyclone Nargis hit Burma on May 2, 2008 causing catastrophic destruction along the heavily populated Irrawaddy Delta. It is estimated to have resulted in the loss of nearly 140,000 lives and affected millions of Burmese, particularly in the Irrawaddy Delta.

The referendum on the new draft constitution was scheduled for May 10, 2008. Even in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, the regime pressed forward with the start of referendum voting. On May 15th, despite international concerns about the legitimacy of both the constitution and the referendum, the regime announced that 92 percent of voters had backed its constitutional proposals.

In February 2009, the relief group Emergency Assistance Team and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health released an independent assessment of the regime’s post-Nargis humanitarian response. Through interviews with relief workers and survivors, the report details the SPDC’s systematic obstruction and misappropriation of aid, intimidation of relief workers, forced relocation of survivors, and use of forced labor in the cyclone-affected areas.

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The Nobel Women's Initiative works to increase awareness of the situation in Burma, and we stand in solidarity with the many brave activists who protest repression and human rights violations by the military regime. We invite you to read some of their stories:

Charm Tong
At the age of 25, Charm Tong has already made her mark on the continuing struggle for human rights in Burma. Charm Tong began working for human rights when she was 16, interviewing rape and trafficking survivors, undocumented migrants, and people infected with HIV. Because of her intimate knowledge of the suffering endured by the Shan people, she has become an eloquent and powerful speaker on their behalf. At 17 she testified before the UN Commission on Human Rights on the situation of people in Shan State and was invited back to speak the next year.