05 June 2003
Senators Express Concern For Burmese Democracy Leader Suu Kyi
(McConnell urges "regime change" in Rangoon) (2550)
Leading Republican senators have expressed their concern over the last
several days about the welfare and whereabouts of Aung San Suu Kyi,
and have condemned the crackdown on her and other democracy activists
by Burma's ruling military junta.
Senator Richard Lugar (Republican of Indiana), the chairman of the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee, took to the floor of the Senate
June 4 to "affirm the call from Secretary of State Powell that
military leaders in Burma release Aung San Suu Kyi" from what the
junta has termed protective custody.
"The re-imposition of custody of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the denial
of requests by United States and other officials to meet with her and
assure her good health and well-being are unconscionable," said Lugar.
"She should be released immediately and unconditionally," he said.
Senators Mitch McConnell (Republican of Kentucky), the Assistant
Majority Leader in the Senate, and John McCain (Republican of
Arizona), the second ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services
Committee, decried the actions of the ruling government apparatus in
Burma known as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) June 3.
McConnell, the Senate's second most powerful Republican after the
Majority Leader, and the chairman of the Senate Appropriations
Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, called the SPDC "a rogue
government" and said it was time for "regime change" in Burma.
McConnell, along with ten co-sponsors, submitted a bill (S 1182) June
4 that would sanction the ruling military junta in Burma, and
recognize the National League of Democracy as the legitimate
representative of the Burmese people, according to the Congressional
Record.
Similar legislation, H.R. 2330, was introduced into the House of
Representatives the same day McConnell submitted S 1182 to the Senate.
"Foreign governments must join in a full court press to determine the
health and well-being of Suu Kyi and others arrested over the
weekend," McConnell said in his June 3 remarks to fellow lawmakers.
"Elected representatives in this body and the world's democracies must
come together and forge a response to the vicious assault on freedom
that continues in Burma," he added.
"Our collective failure to do so will abandon the people of Burma in
time of their greatest need," warned the Kentucky Republican.
McCain spoke to the Senate June 3 criticizing the actions of the SPDC,
and said Congress "should promptly consider legislation banning
Burmese imports into the United States, and the administration should
encourage the European Union to back up its commitment to human rights
in Burma with concrete steps in this direction."
McCain, who is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce,
Science and Transportation, noted that the United States and the
European Union take in 50 percent of Burma's exports.
"The junta's latest actions are a desperate attempt by a decaying
regime to stall freedom's inevitable progress, in Burma and across
Asia," McCain said.
"They will fail as surely as Aung San Suu Kyi's campaign for a free
Burma will one day succeed," he added.
McCain took to task regional neighbors of Burma that were reluctant to
act against the regime.
"I find it hard to believe that any democratic government would stand
by the junta as it takes Burma on a forced march back in time," McCain
said, and singled out Japan's Foreign Minister for criticism for
denying that the situation in Burma was getting worse.
"The world cannot stand by as the ruination of this country continues
any farther," McCain continued.
"Free Burma's leaders, and her people, will remember which nations
stood with them in their struggle against oppression, and which
nations seemed to side with their oppressors," he said.
Following are the texts of the remarks of Senators Lugar, McConnell
and McCain from the Congressional Record:
(begin text)
RELEASE OF AUNG SAN SUU KYI
Senate
June 04, 2003
Mr. LUGAR. Mr. President, today I rise to affirm the call from
Secretary of State Powell that military leaders in Burma release Aung
San Suu Kyi from continued "protective custody."
The reimposition of custody of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the denial of
requests by United States and other officials to meet with her and
assure her good health and well-being are unconscionable. She should
be released immediately and unconditionally. In addition to the
release of other National League for Democracy leaders who have been
arrested, I also call upon the government of Burma to allow the NLD to
reopen its offices throughout the country.
The only hope for democracy in Burma will be found in dialogue among
the National League for Democracy, the State Peace and Development
Council and the ethnic nationalities. The arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi
is a major setback to meaningful reform, and raises serious questions
about whether the current ruling junta can be trusted to live up to
any of its promises. The United States must continue to support Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD.
I am pleased that the Bush administration, in coordination with the
United Nations Security Council and other members of the international
community, is "considering all measures available in our efforts to
foster this transition to democracy."
BURMA
Senate
June 03, 2003
Mr. MCCONNELL. Madam President, another day has passed in Burma and
the welfare and whereabouts of Aung San Suu Kyi and man of her
supporters remain a mystery. The State Peace and Development
Council--the rogue government there--claims that she is in a ``guest
house'' in Rangoon and is in good health. If this is the case, the
government should immediately allow foreign diplomats to meet with
her.
The world's condemnation of the most recent murders and detentions in
Burma has been swift. But words alone will not prevent the junta from
assassinating more democracy activists in the days to come or
detaining those whose only crime is calling for freedom and justice.
The lesson of the past few days is that dialogue has failed in Burma.
Japan and other countries that advocate engagement with the SPDC as a
means of political change have nothing to show for their efforts but
the spilt blood of democrats and the re-arrest of Burma's greatest
hope for freedom.
Foreign governments must join in a full court press to determine the
health and well-being of Suu Kyi and others arrested over the weekend.
Elected representatives in this body and the world's democracies must
come together and forge a response to the vicious assault on freedom
that continues in Burma. Our collective failure to do so will abandon
the people of Burma in time of their greatest need.
Burma's regional neighbors -- Japan, China, Thailand, and the
Philippines, in particular -- must understand the threats that a
repressive Burma will continue to pose the region. Among the junta's
greatest exports are drugs and HIV/AIDS--scourges that know no borders
or boundaries. With terrorist threats in South Asia and Southeast
Asia, the junta will continue to pose chronic problems to countries
trying to close their borders to the trafficking of weapons, people,
and contraband.
In conclusion, it is past time to hold the SPDC accountable for the
many injustices it has inflicted upon the people of Burma. It is time
for regime change in Burma.
Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, every so often a clarifying moment in
international affairs reminds us of the stakes involved in a
particular conflict, and of our moral obligation to stand with those
who risk their lives for the principles of freedom. The violent
crackdown against Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her
supporters over the weekend underscores the brutal and unreconstructed
charter of Burma's dictatorship. The assault should remind democrats
everywhere that we must actively support her struggle to deliver the
human rights and freedom of a people long denied them by an oppressive
military regime.
The arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi following a coordinated, armed attack
against her and her supporters is a reminder to the world that Burma's
military junta has neither legitimacy nor limits on its power to crush
peaceful dissent. The junta insists it stepped in to restore order
following armed clashes between members of Suu Kyi's National League
for Democracy and unnamed opponents. In fact, the regime's forces had
been harassing Suu Kyi and the NLD for months. The Junta's Union
Solidarity Development Association orchestrated and staged last
weekend's attack, killing at least 70 of her supporters and injuring
Suu Kyi herself, perhaps seriously. Credible reports suggest that the
regime's thugs targeted Suu Kyi personally. She is now being held
incommunicado by Burmese military intelligence; her party offices have
been closed; many of its activists are missing; and universities have
been shut down. After having spent most of the last 14 years under
house arrest, Ms. Suu Kyi is, once again, a political prisoner.
Aung San Suu Kyi is one of the world's most courageous champions of
freedom. I join advocates of a free Burma everywhere in expressing
outrage at her unwarranted detention and call for her immediate,
unconditional release, and the freedom to travel and speak throughout
her country.
Closing party offices, shuttering universities, and detaining Aung San
Suu Kyi and senior members of her party in the name of ``protecting''
her demonstrate how estranged the junta is from its own people, and
how potent are Suu Kyi's appeals for democratic change in a nation
that resoundingly endorsed her in democratic elections 13 years ago.
The junta's decision to release her from house arrest a year ago, and
to permit her to speak and travel within tightly circumscribed limits,
appeared to reflect the generals' calculation that her popular appeal
had diminished, and that perhaps her fighting spirit had flagged. They
could not have been more wrong.
Aung San Suu Kyi remains the legitimately elected and overwhelmingly
popular leader of her country. Even though she was under house arrest
in 1990, her party captured 82 percent of the vote, shocking the
generals. Neither the huge majority of the Burmese people who voted
for the NLD nor the international community have forgotten how Burma's
junta rejected the election results, nor how the regime's forces
massacred its own people at a democratic rally 2 years earlier. We
have not forgotten the many political prisoners who remain in Burma's
jails, or the repression Burma's people have endured for decades. The
assault on Burma's free political future at the hands of the regime
last weekend has reminded us of what we already knew: the junta cannot
oversee the reform and opening of Burma, for it remains the biggest
obstacle to the freedom and prosperity of the Burmese people. Burma
cannot change as long as the junta rules, without restraint or
remorse.
Despite these obvious truths, of which we have been reminded again
this week, some countries have chosen to pursue policies of political
and commercial engagement with the government in Rangoon on the
grounds that working with and through the junta would have a more
significant liberalizing effect than isolating and sanctioning it.
ASEAN admitted Burma in 1997, Beijing has enjoyed warm relations with
Rangoon, and most countries trade with it: only the United States and
Europe impose mild sanctions against the regime. Proponents of
engagement pointed to the nascent dialogue between Aung San Suu Kyi
and the regime, and her release from house arrest last May, as
indicators that perhaps external influence was having some beneficial
effect on the dictatorship. But advocates of engagement have little to
show for it following last weekend's assault on the democrats.
Burma's junta must understand quite clearly that it will not enjoy
business as usual following its brutal attack on Aung San Suu Kyi and
the NLD. It is time for the international community to acknowledge
that the status quo serves nobody's interests except those of the
regime: Burma's people suffer, its neighbors are embarrassed,
companies cannot do the kind of business they would with a free and
developing Burma, the drug lords flourish in a vacuum of governance,
and the situation inside the country grows more unstable as the
regime's misrule increasingly radicalizes and impoverishes its people.
No country or leader motivated by the Welfare of the Burmese people, a
desire for regional stability and prosperity, or concern for Burma's
place among nations can maintain that rule by the junta serves these
interests. I find it hard to believe that any democratic government
would stand by the junta as it takes Burma on a forced march back in
time. Yet this morning, when asked about the weekend's assault, the
Japanese Foreign Minister denied that the situation in Burma was
getting worse, said progress is being made toward democratization, and
announced that Japan has no intention of changing its policy on Burma.
Shame on the Japanese. Music to the junta's ears, perhaps, but I
believe friends of the Burmese people must take a radically different,
and principled, approach to a problem that kind words will only
exacerbate.
The world cannot stand by as the ruination of this country continues
any farther. Free Burma's leaders, and her people, will remember which
nations stood with them in their struggle against oppression, and
which nations seemed to side with their oppressors.
American and international policy towards Burma should reflect our
conviction that oppression and impunity must come to an end, and that
the regime must move towards a negotiated settlement with Aung San Suu
Kyi that grants her a leading and irreversible political role
culminating in free and fair national elections. If it does not, the
regime will not be able to manage the transition, when it does come,
for it will come without its consent.
I believe the United States should immediately expand the visa ban
against Burmese officials to include all members of the Union
Solidarity Development Association, which organized the attack against
Aung San Suu Kyi's delegation last weekend. The administration should
also immediately issue an executive order freezing the U.S. assets of
Burmese leaders. U.N. special envoy Razali Ismail should not travel to
Burma as planned this week unless he has assurances from the regime
that he will be able to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi.
Congress should promptly consider legislation banning Burmese imports
into the United States, and the administration should encourage the
European Union to back up its commitment to human rights in Burma with
concrete steps in this direction. The U.S. and the E.U. together
account for over 50 percent of Burma's exports and therefore enjoy
considerable leverage against the regime. The United States alone
absorbs between 20 and 25 percent of Burma's exports. Consideration of
a U.S. import ban should help focus attention in Rangoon on the
consequences of flagrantly violating the human rights of the Burmese
people and their chosen leaders. In coordination with a new U.S.
initiative, an E.U. move in the direction of punitive trade sanctions
would make the regime's continuing repression difficult if not
impossible to sustain.
The junta's latest actions are a desperate attempt by a decaying
regime to stall freedom's inevitable progress, in Burma and across
Asia. They will fail as surely as Aung San Suu Kyi's campaign for a
free Burma will one day succeed.
(end text)
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
|
NEWSLETTER
|
|
Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list
|
|
|
