Burma's Challenge 2006

Thank you, Michele, for that generous introduction. Your effective advocacy is matched only by your infectious energy. Let me express my sincere appreciation also to Aung Din and Jeremy Woodrum for organizing this important event. I commend the members of the U.S. Campaign for Burma for their untiring commitment to freedom for the Burmese people.

In the relatively short time since my confirmation as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, I have had the honor to meet human rights defenders from around the world, not least the extraordinary Bo Kyi, co-founder of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, and Charm Tong, co-founder of the Shan Women’s Action Network. These courageous champions of human dignity are an inspiration to me, as I know they are to all of you.

We gather here today because we all share the same vision – the vision of a Burma that is free from fear -- a democratic Burma where all citizens have hope for the future. As President Bush said, the Burmese people "want their liberty – and one day, they will have it." Working together, we must hasten that day.

The title for this year’s conference is apt: "Burma’s Challenge 2006." Indeed, the suffering of the Burmese people challenges our collective conscience. The litany of abuses committed by the junta goes on and on: forced labor, child soldiers, religious repression, rape, torture, extrajudicial killings, forced relocation of ethnic minorities.

For over 15 years, the junta has blocked the will of the Burmese people for democratic government. Time and again, most recently on April 21, the National League for Democracy has offered to initiate the dialogue that is essential to national reconciliation. Time and again, the junta has spurned their offers. Just this week, the junta’s Information Minister declared that "no dialogue is possible with the NLD."

Instead of seizing opportunities for genuine national dialogue, the regime continues to seize members of the opposition and others who think and act independently. Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest, held incommunicado without charge. Her colleague, NLD Vice Chairman U Tin Oo, also remains under house arrest without trial. Hkun Htun Oo, Chairman of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy, and nine other Shan leaders are serving multiple life sentences in remote prisons in the north. Over 1,100 political prisoners fight for their lives in Burma’s GULag. Tragically, last month NLD member and politicalprisoner U Ko Oo died under incarceration from liver problems caused by poor nutrition and inadequate medical treatment. Also last month, student leader and former political prisoner Thet Naing Oo was beaten to death by police and fire officials on a Rangoon street in broad daylight in full view of passersby. Day after day, there are more arrests.

All the while, the junta touts its so-called "roadmap to democracy." I know roads and I know democracy. The junta’s road leads anywhere but to democracy. You don’t get to democracy by persecuting the peaceful opposition. You don’t get to democracy by rejecting any real national debate. And you don’t get to democracy through a sham National Convention.

The junta’s repressive rule constitutes not only a moral challenge to the world community, it also presents a challenge to international security and stability. The regime’s cruelty and irresponsibility have generated or exacerbated a host of ills from large refugee outflows, to the spreading of HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases, and the trafficking of drugs and human beings.

There are over 500,000 internally displaced persons inside Burma. Add to these approximately 140,000 refugees in Thailand, and an estimated 85,000 in Malaysia, India and Bangladesh. The numbers continue to climb. Just this week, the Burmese military attacked villages in the Karen and Karenni states. Reportedly over 11,000 civilians have been forced to flee into the jungle, and over 1,000 already have crossed into the refugee camps on the Thai-Burma border.

Ninety percent of the heroin in Southeast Asia comes from Burma.

Drug-resistant HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria are being transported across Burma’s borders into China, India and Thailand. Meanwhile, Burma has among the world’s lowest levels of government investment in health. Public sector investment in education and healthcare combined is less than $1 per person per year. By contrast, the regime spends approximately $400 per soldier and has expended massive amounts on the new capital in Pyinmana – the new airport alone cost an estimated $150 million.

Blatantly disregarding the welfare of its people, the concerns of its neighbors and the call of the United Nations, the regime has not eased, it has increased, restrictions on UN agencies and international NGOs doing humanitarian work in Burma.

You may be familiar with the report issued last month by the Center for Public Health and Human Rights. I am pleased that Dr. Chris Beyrer, one of the report’s authors, will be a panelist in the UN Security Council session later in the program. The report outlines the serious health threats posed by Burma and notes that addressing public health concerns through the junta has become increasingly difficult due to the restrictions on international organizations.

Indeed, Medecíns Sans Frontiéres was forced to close its French Section that was responsible for programs in the conflict-ridden Mon and Karen states. As the manager of the French Section put it: "It appears the Burmese authorities do not want anyone to witness the abuses they are committing against their own people."

The advent last month in Burma of Avian Influenza further heightens the international health concerns posed by Burma. The United States provided assistance through the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization to help contain the outbreak. But the regime’s failure to devote adequate resources to the health sector, combined with its repressive actions that drive its people from their homes, increases the risk that Avian Influenza will spread within Burma and throughout the region.

Clearly, Burma presents a great and growing challenge to the world community. This is a challenge to which we must rise.

With strong bipartisan backing from the U.S. Congress, the Bush Administration is meeting the challenge through intensive efforts in four broad areas: One- on the global level through the United Nations; Two -- by working with key allies and regional partners and organizations; Three -- by maintaining our bilateral sanctions against the regime, and Four -- through our humanitarian, human rights and democracy programs.

As you know, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has designated 2006 as the year for a democratic transition in Burma. This will be a crucial year for building on the momentum gathering in the United Nations and in ASEAN that change must come to Burma.

The United States will urge further action on Burma in the U.N. Security Council. We will also support strong resolutions on Burma in the General Assembly, as we did with the European Union’s resolution last year. Now that both the International Labor Organization and the UN Economic and Social Council have agreed to place Burma on their agendas, we will push for tough statements and actions from their summer sessions as well.

The United States worked hard for the creation of a new, stronger UN Human Rights Council. The resolution creating the Council was not all that we had hoped for, but we have declared our readiness to work cooperatively with members of the Council once it is formed, and with other UN member states, to maximize its effectiveness. We will work with our partners to make Burma a high priority on the Council’s agenda and to ensure that the best candidate is selected by the Council to be the next UN Rapporteur for Human Rights in Burma.

Beyond the United Nations, we will focus on building international pressure on the junta. We are already working closely with like-minded partners in Europe and we are expanding our cooperation with key countries in the Asia region, including ASEAN members, Japan, China, India, and Australia.

As you know, on February 28, the European Union issued a strong statement calling for the immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners and for a genuine dialogue between the regime and the NLD and ethnic minority representatives. And just this week the EU renewed its visa ban, the freezing of assets and other restrictive measures against the junta. We look forward to developing joint initiatives with the EU through the U.S. – EU Task Force on Democracy Promotion.

As Secretary Rice said regarding Burma during her trip last month to Asia: "…so long as the proud people of this great nation remain oppressed, there can be no ‘business as usual’ in Southeast Asia."

We welcomed the firm public stance taken by ASEAN back in December and Malaysian Foreign Minister Hamid’s fact-finding visit to Rangoon in March. At the recent informal ASEAN meeting in Indonesia, the Foreign Minister expressed his dissatisfaction that he was not allowed to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi and other key leaders. Indonesian President Yudhoyono’s visit to Burma in April provided another opportunity to pressure the regime. Following the visit, senior Indonesian officials confirmed that President Yudhoyono intends to use his influence -- and Indonesia’s democratic example -- to push for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and a democratic transition in Burma.

And during his recent state visit to India, President Bush and Indian Prime Minister Singh condemned the human rights situation in Burma and called for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi.

We will continue to use every available opportunity to work with nations around the world, and especially with countries in Asia, to build international pressure for change.

We will continue to provide humanitarian assistance to the Burmese people. In doing so, we will bear in mind Aung San Suu Kyi’s wise words of caution: "If the provision of aid simply enables an authoritarian government to assume less responsibility for the welfare of the people, or to strengthen its despotic grip, or to increase the opacity of its administration, it will do irreparably more harm than good." All of our humanitarian funding will continue to be distributed to organizations independent of the regime, and we will encourage other governments to do the same.

Last year, the State Department provided over $14 million to address key humanitarian, democracy and human rights concerns for Burma. In addition, we have provided scholarship grants that have helped send more than 200 Burmese students to universities around the world.

Our funds assist Burmese living in Thailand, both inside and outside refugee camps. We also fund the efforts of organizations inside Burma to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases.

My own bureau – the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor -- administers key Burma support programs through the National Endowment for Democracy. Over the last six years, the Endowment has received over $16 million for Burma-related activities, including capacity-building for NGOs in exile and the collection of information on human rights in Burma. My bureau uses this information in the preparation of the annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices and the Supporting Human Rights and Democracy report. These are key reference documents on the deplorable conditions in Burma and on how we are working with governments and NGOs on the national, regional and global levels to promote peaceful, democratic change.

Only by Burma’s return to the democratic path from which it was wrenched can the fundamental rights of the Burmese people be fully realized. As President Bush has said: "The people of Burma live in the darkness of tyranny – but the light of freedom shines in their hearts."

In closing, I wish to thank the U.S. Campaign for Burma and all others who defend the rights of the Burmese people. Thank you for your passion. Thank you for your ideas. Thank you for your resolve. And thank you for your partnership.

Working together, we will speed the day when freedom comes to Burma. We cannot know when that day will come – but come it will.  And when that day arrives, the victory will belong to the many brave Burmese who lived so long in fear, yet dreamed of freedom and sacrificed so dearly in its name.

Thank you.