For Immediate Release on: September 23, 2005

TIME FOR THE SECURITY COUNCIL TO DISCUSS MYANMAR

Myanmar’s decision to relinquish its turn at the organization’s chairmanship in 2006 last July was a small but important victory for the AIPMC which has consistently argued that Myanmar’s military junta lacked the credibility and competency to lead ASEAN. It also showed that peer pressure worked while constructive engagement – ASEAN’s disastrous eight-year long experiment in appeasement – had achieved nothing for regional stability and cohesion, and even less for self-determination of the long-suffering people of Myanmar.

It is time for ASEAN to come up with a fresh strategy that will deliver results. Myanmar’s military regime, the SPDC, clearly responds to pressure. A strategy that applies consistent diplomatic and political pressure will be even more effective if it is led by ASEAN. Otherwise the SPDC will continue to flout its own promises for the commencement of genuine political reforms, national reconciliation, and the release of political prisoners including democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Myanmar’s problems will continue to pose a threat to the region.

The AIPMC wishes to voice its strong support for the findings and recommendations of the report “Threat to the Peace: A Call for the UN Security Council to Act in Burma” jointly commissioned by former president of the Czech Republic Vaclav Havel and South African Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Bishop Desmond Tutu. The groundbreaking report, released 3 days ago, called for an urgent, new, and multilateral diplomatic initiative at the UN Security Council to bring about change in Myanmar.

The 70-page report’s findings detail what we have been saying all along: the deteriorating situation in Myanmar is affecting not only those within the country but people outside its borders as well. Quite apart from its truly disgraceful human rights record, Myanmar’s troubles – ranging from ethnic conflicts and refugee outflows to drugs and the unchecked spread of HIV/AIDS – have become a serious cause for concern for ASEAN and the international community.

The urgency of the situation cannot be underestimated. It must be raised at the highest levels of governments, regional organizations and the United Nations now. The inclusion of Myanmar on the Security Council’s agenda is essential to ensure such diplomatic efforts are effective.

Diplomatic interventions by the UN secretary general Kofi Annan and his special envoy Razali Ismail have so far been resisted by the SPDC largely because they were not backed-up by the weight of a Security Council resolution.

The action is also consistent with the repeated calls from ASEAN for the SPDC to work with the UN secretary general’s office to bring about change in Myanmar. Since the regime has snubbed ASEAN and refuses to listen, this move will strengthen ASEAN’s calls because it will demand the regimefollow the norms of regional and international diplomacy. While AIPMC does not support military intervention, it welcomes the pressure for change

that the Security Council will bring to bear on the SPDC.

The AIPMC would support resolutions at the Security Council that require the SPDC to work with the UN secretary general’s office to formulate a plan for national reconciliation to mitigate Myanmar’s threat to international peace and security. Such a resolution should also require that the secretary general make periodic progress reports to the Security Council to gauge the progress made.

We urge ASEAN governments not only to support the move but, as Myanmar’s closest neighbors, to lead this multilateral effort to help bring about change there. As the report points out, the situation in Myanmar is, in some aspects, worse than in countries where the Security Council had previously decided to act such as Sierra Leone, Yemen and Haiti.

We cannot afford to wait any longer. Political instability in Myanmar continues to threaten regional security and cohesion. Since the deferment of the ASEAN chair in July, rumors that head of the SPDC Sr Gen Than Shwe had been ousted in a coup refused to subside despite official denials. One result had been a 30% depreciation in Myanmar’s currency, the kyat, exacerbating rampant inflation and the effects of the SPDC’s misrule. Our sentiments are articulated capably by Bishop Tutu, who stated “Quiet closed-door meetings among countries in New York are no longer enough. They have failed…It is time for the UN Security Council to act. In fact, it is past due… If governments want to talk about the situation in Burma (Myanmar), the time is now and the venue is the Security Council.”

When ASEAN MPs met for the first time last November to form the AIPMC, we were delighted to receive acknowledgement and solidarity from President Havel and Bishop Tutu. Today, we are honored to recognize that these heroes for democracy share our concerns on Myanmar. We are in absolute agreement on one thing: It’s time to say enough is enough.