Benedict Rogers: Benchmarking Burma
[Mr. Rogers is advocacy officer for South Asia at Christian Solidarity Worldwide and the author of "A Land Without Evil: Stopping the Genocide of Burma's Karen People" (Monarch Books, 2004).]
The United Nations special envoy on Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, is expected to arrive in Rangoon in the next few days for another round of talks with the country's military regime. If his visit is to have any meaning, he must move beyond the U.N.'s traditional diplomatic niceties and make concrete demands for change.
Since 1990, U.N. envoys have made 37 visits to Burma. The Human Rights Council and General Assembly between them have passed more than 30 resolutions, and the Security Council has made two Presidential Statements. All of this has had little effect. Vague requests to the junta to engage in dialogue with democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, made without any deadline, have led nowhere. She remains under house arrest, just as she has been for 12 years.
So rather than more of the same, the U.N. must present the regime with specific benchmarks for progress, accompanied by deadlines. The first benchmark should be the release of political prisoners, who currently number over 2,000. Many are in extremely poor health due to bad prison conditions, mistreatment, torture and the denial of medical care. Mr. Gambari should insist that the junta release political prisoners before U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's visit to Burma in December. And Mr. Ban should be willing to cancel his trip if the junta doesn't comply.
Another important benchmark would be immediately ending the military offensive against civilians in eastern Burma, which has destroyed 3,200 villages and displaced more than a million people since 1996. The junta has destroyed twice as many ethnic villages as has the Sudanese regime in Darfur. Burma has the highest number of forcibly conscripted child soldiers in the world.
Setting such benchmarks with realistic deadlines would enable Mr. Gambari to evaluate the progress he is or isn't making. If the junta complies, so much the better. But if it misses the benchmarks, that would clearly signal the need for international action.
The international community could impose several powerful sanctions for failure to meet these benchmarks. One would be revoking the junta's credentials to represent Burma in world bodies like the U.N. The junta is an illegitimate government, having overwhelmingly lost elections in 1990 and proven itself negligent in its handling of Cyclone Nargis. According to the U.N., more than a million cyclone victims have still not received help. The U.N. also says the regime has been stealing millions of dollars of aid money through its below-market fixed exchange rates. The junta is unfit to govern, and there is a legitimate alternative in the form of the leaders elected in 1990 now living as a government in exile...
Read entire article at WSJ
The United Nations special envoy on Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, is expected to arrive in Rangoon in the next few days for another round of talks with the country's military regime. If his visit is to have any meaning, he must move beyond the U.N.'s traditional diplomatic niceties and make concrete demands for change.
Since 1990, U.N. envoys have made 37 visits to Burma. The Human Rights Council and General Assembly between them have passed more than 30 resolutions, and the Security Council has made two Presidential Statements. All of this has had little effect. Vague requests to the junta to engage in dialogue with democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, made without any deadline, have led nowhere. She remains under house arrest, just as she has been for 12 years.
So rather than more of the same, the U.N. must present the regime with specific benchmarks for progress, accompanied by deadlines. The first benchmark should be the release of political prisoners, who currently number over 2,000. Many are in extremely poor health due to bad prison conditions, mistreatment, torture and the denial of medical care. Mr. Gambari should insist that the junta release political prisoners before U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's visit to Burma in December. And Mr. Ban should be willing to cancel his trip if the junta doesn't comply.
Another important benchmark would be immediately ending the military offensive against civilians in eastern Burma, which has destroyed 3,200 villages and displaced more than a million people since 1996. The junta has destroyed twice as many ethnic villages as has the Sudanese regime in Darfur. Burma has the highest number of forcibly conscripted child soldiers in the world.
Setting such benchmarks with realistic deadlines would enable Mr. Gambari to evaluate the progress he is or isn't making. If the junta complies, so much the better. But if it misses the benchmarks, that would clearly signal the need for international action.
The international community could impose several powerful sanctions for failure to meet these benchmarks. One would be revoking the junta's credentials to represent Burma in world bodies like the U.N. The junta is an illegitimate government, having overwhelmingly lost elections in 1990 and proven itself negligent in its handling of Cyclone Nargis. According to the U.N., more than a million cyclone victims have still not received help. The U.N. also says the regime has been stealing millions of dollars of aid money through its below-market fixed exchange rates. The junta is unfit to govern, and there is a legitimate alternative in the form of the leaders elected in 1990 now living as a government in exile...