WE HAVE RECEIVED THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT FROM ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL:

BURMA: Worrying resurgence of government-backed goon squads

In recent weeks the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received
many detailed and worrying reports about the resurgence of
government-backed goon squads in Burma. Gangs of thugs, apparently
most under the direction of the Union Solidarity and Development
Association (USDA), a mass-organising body, have been used to attack
human rights defenders going about their business and persons holding
prayer vigils for the release of political prisoners. In some cases
police officers and other state security personnel are also known to
have been among those carrying out or organising the attacks. After a
disturbance is created, the police and local authorities step in and
accuse the victims of being responsible for stirring up trouble. The
courts may then be used to add insult to injury through the laying of
charges against the targets of the violence.

The case of the Human Rights Defenders and Promoters group in
Henzada, west of Rangoon, is indicative. The AHRC has already issued
a number of appeals following the assault on members of the group in
April, two of whom were hospitalised with serious injuries.
Subsequently, six of the human rights defenders were themselves
charged with offences related to a series of incidents that the
authorities claim provoked the violence. The six have been kept in
detention. Their relatives are suffering hardship due to their
absences, and fear that worse is yet to come: they are farming
families and now is the time for planting, as the monsoon sweeps into
Burma from the Bay of Bengal. Attempts by their lawyers to have them
released on bail have been unsuccessful. By contrast, six persons
accused of assaulting them have all been granted bail. Another six
whom they accused of being behind the violence, including local USDA
officials, police and the village council chairman, have all escaped
investigation. The court did not even call those officials for
inquiries about the complaint that was made against them.

That it is easy for authorities in Burma to organise a gang to
harass, assault and abduct anyone of their choosing speaks to the
complicity of the state in systematic abuse there. And just how easy
is it? According to a participant in the illegal arrest of rights
defenders gathering at a pagoda in Rangoon's northern suburbs during
May, thugs can be hired for the cost of a cup of tea. In an interview
with Democratic Voice of Burma shortwave radio, he said that his gang
was not even paid for the job but just taken to a teashop for a snack
afterwards. Among those they illegally detained was John Humphrey
Freedom Award laureate Ma Su Su Nwe, who was released in June, in
poor health but good spirits; others arrested with her remain in
illegal detention. Students in Rangoon have lodged a complaint that
one of their peers who was among the campaigners has disappeared. And
when devotees at another pagoda were pelted with slingshots and went
to complain to the police, they were reportedly warned that next time
they might get killed.

The threat of death is not idle. It is just over four years since the
infamous Depayin Massacre, when a convoy carrying democracy leader Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters was set upon by a murderous crowd
armed with makeshift weapons, estimated to have numbered in
thousands. To this day it is not known how many died, but some who
fled to Thailand testified to having seen their comrades being beaten
and stabbed unceasingly. Since that time, the government and its
agents responsible for the killings and injuries have continued to
organise, train and prepare for more to come. With the campaigns for
peaceful political and social change becoming increasingly visible
and attracting more and more supporters in recent months, it seems
that for the army that time is now.

Although the military regime in Burma promotes itself as a defender
of law and order, its agencies and agents are in fact the greatest
threats to these principles, not to mention the rule of law and human
rights. As it again prepares its thugs to do battle with its own
people, in the coming days and weeks further arrests and violence can
be expected, and the security of all people in Burma thereby further
threatened.

The Asian Human Rights Commission expresses strong support for all
human rights defenders in Burma, be they farmers or lawyers,
villagers or townspeople, struggling at this very difficult time to
pull their country forward from the morass in which it has been stuck
for far too long. It calls upon the international community to
acknowledge this struggle and pay heed to its features and
implications through detailed study of specific cases and urgent
interventions, rather than merely making superficial remarks that
contribute little towards the prospects of genuine change there.

Finally, the AHRC makes a special call to the judges of Burma:
although you are working in a deficient and corrupted institution
that is entirely under the control of other parts of government,
still you have may choose to uphold your own integrity through proper
application of the law. This would in itself go a long way towards an
improvement in the prospects for human rights in Burma. There are
means available under domestic laws to hear and consider cases
against state officers accused of wrongdoing; use them. Similarly,
there are well-articulated and reasoned legal defences being made by
the human rights defenders being brought before you; hear them. Give
some cause for hope that all is not lost, that there remains within
Burma's judiciary some element of legal thinking, not merely the
crass expression of military power.

# # #

About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional
non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights
issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.

The situations in Burma become the worst ever in the world as long as the military-men are in power.
There was not the only time that Burmese SPDC military thugs and their backed stray thugs like USDA members have attacked ordinary Burmese people and pro-democracy activists with the mindless acts of violence.
The world's powerful bodies such as UN, ILO, ICJ, UNCHR and UNHCR have definitely failed to influence Burma's ruthless government to make credible and sustainable progress for democratization but those bodies have been on shuttle diplomacy nevertheless.
Military generals would never pay attention on such diplomacy unless they face with gunboat diplomacy. Burma’s share-border neighbouring countries like China, India, Thailand are exploiting the unstable and unaccountable regime’s natural resources deals.
In addition, the distant country Russia is also jumping on the bandwagon of SUNKEN BURMA.

Sometimes the world organizations should consider the DIPLOMACY is not always works when it comes to deal with uncivilized Burmese authorities.
The international sanctions and ASEAN’s so-called constructive engagement policy don’t work either.

A thief doesn’t usually admit that he is a thief unless he can’t deny it anymore.

In the 1976 summit of Asean, the leaders of the then 5 countries signed a declaration saying that each of them will not interfer or comment on the internal situation of the others members.

Today, Indonesia is trying to impose human rights and democracy as basic in the new Asean Charter on discussion. I guess Indonesia will fail because the four dictatures, including Burma, in the association ruled by consensus will strongly oppose it.

ASEAN is not a politically, economically and socially strong association for the regional nations.
ASEAN’s policy of constructive engagement towards Burma has made no change and no progress since Burma has been engaged in the association in 1997. However, Burmese military authorities have gotten more chances of shoulders to shoulders relations on the stage of international community since and ASEAN makes SPDC legitimise by its so-called constructive engagement policy. In returns, ASEAN got opportune moments for exploiting Burma’s natural resources. Moreover, China, Russia and India got the same opportunities as ASEAN. Ironically, dividends are for military authorities and their cronies.

ASEAN’s policy towards Burma is NOT CONSTRUCTIVE BUT DESTRUCTIVE THE COUNTRY BY ITS OWN INTERESTS.