Source - The Nation Website (Eng)
May 061, 2006


The latest military offensive by the brutal regime has driven
hundreds more refugees towards our border

Hundreds of Karen refugees are poised to enter Thailand, joining
some 140,000 refugees living for decades in strings of refugee camps along
the northern Thai border. Like those before them, the Karen who are stranded
on the bank of the Salween River and other spots along the border are
victims of decades of fighting between the central government in Rangoon and
rebel armies seeking independence or autonomy.

The junta has made some headway in securing a number of cease-fire
agreements, although a lasting peace is still nowhere in sight. But over the
past decade, with little regard for international norms, the junta has
directed their attacks towards civilians, as part of a campaign that
human-rights organisations describe as a concerted effort to deny the rebel
armies any possible support base.

Since the start of this latest round of fighting, which erupted
last November, more than 11,000 Karen villagers have been driven from their
homes in eastern Burma. Those who succeeded in crossing the border are
living under plastic sheets, waiting and hoping for any kind of assistance
from the UN or whomever. Many came with stories of rape, misery and abuse at
the hands of one of the most condemned regimes in the world. Footage taken
by aid workers who sneaked across the border showed burned villages,
destroyed rice fields and murdered civilians in northern and western areas
of Karen state, where clashes between Karen National Union soldiers and
Burmese government troops occur regularly. The junta's official mouthpiece,
The New Light of Myanmar, said yesterday, "Terrorist insurgents are
committing destructive acts using various means with the intention of
undermining the stability of the state".

This latest Burmese offensive comes amid growing calls for the
United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to take action against Rangoon. Human
Rights Watch has urged the UNSC to include Burma on its agenda, in
accordance with its April 28 "Resolution on Protection of Civilians in Armed
Conflict". The resolution affirms a collective responsibility of all UN
members to protect civilian populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic
cleansing and crimes against humanity when their governments do not provide
that protection.

China and Russia, two of the five permanent Security Council
members, have been blocking action on Burma, perhaps for fear that harsh
action against the junta would deny them access to the resource-rich
country. But that does not mean the rest of us should allow them to obstruct
what needs to be done. There needs to be more pressure put on UN members to
approve a commission of inquiry to investigate possible war crimes and
crimes against humanity committed since the Burmese military government took
power in 1988.

Asean, which appears to be fed up with Burma dragging the
organisation down with it, should publicly call on Burma to end its attacks
on ethnic minority populations. Last year, Asean quietly asked Burma to
surrender its turn as chair of the organisation's annual meeting for fear
the boycott by the US and EU would be too great an embarrassment. But today,
with hundreds of displaced refugees stranded in dire straits on the Thai
border, it's high time that Asean spoke up. And as Burma's friend, Asean
owes it to the junta to give it to them straight: stop the atrocities and
respect international norms and practices.

The latest move from Rangoon is to paint the opposition National
League for Democracy (NLD) and the rebel armies as either outlaws or
terrorists. Kuala Lumpur, which chairs the Asean Standing Committee, was
quick to tell Burma not to do anything to jeopardise hopes for democracy.

When asked if the situation in Burma was worsening, Malaysian
Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said, "We would like to see more progress
... but the process is seen not to be moving in the way that the
international community expects them to move. Any action they take, like
closing down the NLD or not releasing Aung San Suu Kyi, these are all
impediments and obstacles to creating visible signs of credibility in terms
of the movement towards democracy."

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com

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