| Look Aung San Suu Kyi in the eye.... Tratto da http://www.dassk.org/ On January 5 2007, 13 Nobel Peace Prize laureates in eight countries attempted to apply for visas to visit our sister laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma, where she remains under house arrest -- this time since May of 2003. When we arrived at the Burmese consulate in Washington DC, the open gate was immediately closed and locked. After we rang the embassy’s front doorbell, we were told to leave or the police would be called. Meanwhile, in South Korea, Nobel laureate and former President Kim Dae Jung was rejected immediately. This political action, called for by the Nobel Women’s Initiative, coincided with movement on Burma in the United Nations Security Council, and we hoped it might add fuel to the discussion. After years of work by supporters of democracy in Burma, the Security Council was finally taking up the issue with a resolution that would have pressed the military government to speed up democratic reforms in the country. With unusual speed, on January 12, just one week after our visa action, the UN Security Council rejected the resolution with a vote of 9-3 and three abstentions. Our colleagues inside Burma report that since this vote the regime is jubilant, broadcasting it in the country on state-run channels continually as international vindication of their rule and policies. It was not surprising that the resolution failed, given the consistent resistance of members of the Security Council to take up the issue. What was appalling was that South Africa joined China and Russia in voting against the resolution, with all three arguing that Burma’s internal problems did not fall within the Security Council’s mandate. The council is only to take up issues that are a threat to international peace and security. What has happened to South Africa’s moral compass? When the people of South Africa were suffering under the apartheid regime, those who rule the country today were only too happy to have the Security Council pass a resolution condemning apartheid. Why was the domestic apartheid government of South Africa more worthy of Security Council action than the Burmese military government, in Pretoria’s estimation? Why, for that matter, has South Africa also consistently voted against or abstained from other Burma-related resolutions in the General Assembly? The Burmese military has destroyed almost 3 000 villages over the past 10 years, resulting in a million refugees and an additional 600 000 internally displaced. Forced labour, systematic rape, child soldiers and human mine sweepers are also features of the military government, which is also one of only two governments that regularly uses landmines and still produces them. The military regime might be a domestic nightmare, but its policies most definitely have a destabilising effect far beyond its borders. In February 2003, Jody Williams and Elizabeth Bernstein, now director of the Nobel Women’s Initiative, obtained a Burmese visa and met there with Suu Kyi. The message she asked us to give to the world was clear and unambiguous: Please isolate the military regime to help force it to begin meaningful dialogue and a transition to democracy -- which it had stolen from her and her National League for Democracy when they won 80% of the vote in democratic elections in 1990. For those who might doubt the efficacy of isolation, she gave the example of South Africa. Suu Kyi asked the international community to remember that it was international isolation and near-universal condemnation that helped bring down the apartheid government. She asked for the same support for the people of Burma. She also said that a democratic Burma would have a lot to learn from the experience of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. When Suu Kyi and her people are finally free, we cannot help but wonder how members of the South African government will be able to look them in the eye and explain their vote against the call for democracy in Burma. If the government of South Africa does not have the moral courage to stand up for the Burmese, then the people of South Africa should follow the example of their own Nobel Laureate, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who has worked tirelessly on behalf of Suu Kyi and the people of Burma, and force their government to change its indefensible position. Shirin Ebadi and Jody Williams (Mail & Guardian Online, South Africa) [Shirin Ebadi (2003) and Jody Williams (1997) are recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize] |