At her house on Rangoon's University Avenue, Aung Sang Suu Kyi sits and waits. Imprisoned off and on for the best part of two decades, this weekend marked 13 years of accumulated time she has spent either in prison or else under house arrest. Remarkably it also marked the first time that Western and Asian leaders came together to demand the release of political prisoners such as her.
At the Asian-European summit in Beijing, a statement was released which said: "Leaders... encouraged the Myanmar government to engage all stakeholders in an inclusive political process in order to achieve national reconciliation and economic and social development. In this regard, they called for the lifting of restrictions placed on political parties and early further release of those under detention."
Clearly, it's one thing for European countries that have little or no stake in Burma to call on the military junta to free prisoners and quite another for China, the regime's main backer, to do so.
Activists said they were pleased. "This is a significant breakthrough," said Mark Farmaner, of the Burma Campaign UK. "It's the first time we've had Europe and Asia come together in this way to demand real political progress in Burma. The demand to release political prisoners is particularly significant."
Last month, the regime said it was releasing 9,000 prisoners, including six political prirsoners, one of whom I spoke with. (One of the six, U Win Htein, was promptly rearrested and returned to jail.)
But what seems clear is that however many prisoners may have been released - it is impossible to verify the numbers - the vast majority of the political prisoners imprisoned in the aftermath of last year's democracy protests remain in jail. Indeed, the Burma Campaign UK believes the number of such prisoners of conscience has doubled to 2,100 since last year. In December, UN Sec General Ban-Ki Moon is to hold unprecedented talks with the regime's leaders. Let's hope he remembers the woman at 54 University Avenue and the hundreds of others thrown behind bars by Burma's generals.
(Photo: Getty Images)
I repeat...
... what has David Miliband done to free Aung San Su Kyi?
# called the Ambassador of Myanmar to an interview and given him a stern warning? NO.
# closed the Embassy of Myanmar and ordered its Ambassador out of Britain? NO.
# sequestered the assets of Myanmar which lie (in a great part) in British Banks?? NO.
# sought cooperation with our EU allies to place a travel restriction on the members of the Junta that govern Myanmar?? NO! Or even banned them from coming to Britain? NO!
# raised the matter with the Heads of the G8 nations? NO.
# raised the matter with Myanmar's main trading partner China, which rebadges Myanmar's exports as "Made In China" and enables Myanmar to get around trade boycotts with 100% impunity? NO! Even though he had a private meeting with China's leadership in Beijing? NO!!
# raised the matter with Britain's ally the USA? NO!
In fact David Miliband has done NOTHING AT ALL.
That's the "Principled Foreign Policy" which Britain was promised by Miliband's party at the last elections. What it actually means is QUIET ACCOMMODATION WITH MILITARY TYRANTS.
Posted by: Neil McGowan | Monday, 27 October 2008 at 05:05 PM
The UN is a disgrace! EU has the great potential to take over to bring true democracy and end the fascist military rule in Burma finally, and please don´t leave it be to the mostly corrupted ASEAN and China, whilst they continue to do business there! And please elect Aung San Suu Kyi as the new UN Sec-General and a woman for the first time into the much male-dominated UN top ranks, that might also finally see her immediate release, as a new strategy for the strugle for freedom for Burma and its long suffering ordinary people!
Posted by: Noor Aza Othman | Monday, 27 October 2008 at 08:48 PM
It would be interesting to hear what John Bercow MP (chairman of All-Party Committee on Burma) has to say about this recent development, and in particular, what pressure he could place upon the Foreign Secretary, David Milliband, to at least discuss Burma's plight with other democratically-minded sovereign states.
Posted by: Laurence Richards | Monday, 27 October 2008 at 10:44 PM
Laurence, you can bet your boots that Miliband will cite that old platitude about "not wishing to exacerbate the situation" by taking any actual, errr, measures.
There will be some who can remember back as far as the "Saffron Uprising" in which the Burmese (oops, I mean "Myanmar") monks protested peacefully against the Junta. They will remember that Gordon Brown "called for" international support for the monks. David Miliband similarly "called upon the world community" to blah-blah-blah.
All cheap and empty verbiage, said purely to look good, and without a miligram of sincerity in a single word of it.
Miliband subsequently went to Beijing (you can read about it on his FCO Blog) where he apparently had some smashing suppers, was driven around in a lovely limousine (the details are on his blog - of the limo, I mean) and was feted by the Communist Grandees.
Did he, errr, remember his pledge to "call upon those who" (blah-blah) when sitting down to a nice supper of Peking Duck with Myanmar's principal trading partner, China?? No, of course not.
Did he even think to mention that it is China which rebrands everything Burma exports, labelling it (for a price, of course!) "MADE IN CHINA"? No, of course not.
So the idea of a trade boycott of Burma is neatly sidestepped by China, which makes nice money off the deal, and enables Burmese trade to continue very nicely.
The other ASEAN countries rebrand Burmese goods too. So of course, the "boycott" suits them very neatly.
Posted by: Neil McGowan | Monday, 27 October 2008 at 11:31 PM
Neil, As always you make some interesting points. I'm very interested in the comment you make about British banks holding the bulk of Burma's assets. Is that an informed guess or something that can be demonstrated.
Best wishes,
Andrew
Posted by: Andrew Buncombe | Tuesday, 28 October 2008 at 02:52 AM