အေမရိကန္သမၼတအုိဘားမားထံအိတ္ဖြင့္ေပးစာ

Letter to the President of the United States of America

March 23,2012

President Barack Obama

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, D.C. 20500

Re: Against 2008 sham constitution and Thein Sein regime in Burma

Dear Mr. President:

           On behalf of the International Foundation for Burma National Congress (IFBNC), I am pleased and honored to present you with this letter. IFBNC members are comprised of Burmese democracy activists from New York City, Buffalo, Utica, Albany, North Carolina, Fort Wayne, Albany, Oregon, San Francisco, Washington D.C and  around the world such as Canada, Japan, Netherland, India, Australia, London including Naturalize US citizens. We are very encouraged by your strong support for democratization, promotion of human rights and rule of law in Burma.

            In Burma today, Thein Sein regime is trying to gain legitimacy and get away with impunity for the crimes against humanity committed by the successive military regimes, BSPP, SLORC, SPDC, and USDA. Perpetrators of such crimes committed against so many people for so long should not be embraced, instead they should be brought to International Criminal Court. Thein Sein, current president of Burma, is a Chairman of USDA and is not a moderate. He was a secretary No.1of SPDC, a senior member of Burma Army, a prime minister of SPDC. Under the brutal rule of SPDC, scores of protesters were killed on many occasions of protests, the most recent and well-known being the Saffron Revolution of 2007. In addition, his administration denied western relief agencies in devastating Cyclone Nargis in 2008 and focused on sham constitutional referendum that is the blueprint for permanent authoritarian rule. SPDC held sham election in November 2010, with widespread restrictions on opposition parties, arbitrary detentions of political activists, and serve limits on basic freedom of expression, association, and assembly. International monitoring was not allowed. The main military backed USDA party swept the large majority of seats and now dominates the Thein Sein regime. Thein Sein and military regime have been deploying “catch and release” strategy throughout the entire history of their military rule. When the United Nations and others have demanded the release of Burma’s political prisoners, Burma military has respond to these demands by perfecting a “catch and release” strategy which consists of periodically releasing some prisoners to gain international legitimacy. But the later they have rearrested many political activists. In fact, this strategy has been chronically and effectively used to divert international pressure and trick well-meaning members of global communities.

BSPP, SLORC, SPDC, USDA, and Thein Sein regime are of no different species with the same behavior, mindset, values and attitudes. They just change name, uniform, hats for outside layer, but their inside features are the same. Thus we can say that Thein Sein regime type is just a brutal military based authoritarian type. We just believe in people power and collective action for our new genuine democracy in Burma. You and all international leaders should not be led into thinking that the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and political prisoners means any progress on democratic change in Burma. Their concept of new Burmese style democracy does not freely comprise key components of democracy such as participation, contestation, and accountability. We should adjust based on democratic basic principles such as basic political rights, basic human rights and civil liberties.  Indeed, Thein Sein regime must stop quasi-transitional processes and must eliminate sham constitution of 2008 which guarantees permanent dominance by the Burmese military (Committee of Defense and Security). It is sitting above the 2008 sham constitution. Thus we must eliminate 2008 sham constitution for genuine democracy political system. Burma needs a transitional justice system. But Thein Sein regime’s transitional process is an unjust transitional process. He must engage in a meaningful dialogue with all political leaders, all ethnic minority leaders for the interim government and work toward a new constitution for genuine democracy in Burma.

On the other hand, Burma military regimes including Thein Sein/USDA regime violate the tenets of  bodies of numerous international treaties and charters to which Burma is a party including United Nations rules, the 1949 Geneva Conventions, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crime of Genocide, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In addition, SPDC, with Thein Sein being its Prime Minister, contravenes numerous other instrument of customary international humanitarian law, including the Rome Statue defining Crimes against Humanity. Burma military regime, SLORC, signed the Geneva Conventions of 1949 on August 25, 1992. But they violated Convention’s principle and rules. Today, Thein Sein regime still violates ASEAN Charter. New ASEAN charter comprises its intent, benefits, and human right provisions and ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Right (AICHR). The ASEAN Charter states that purposes of ASEAN are to strengthen democracy, enhance good governance and rule of law, to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms, and to enhance the well-being and opportunities for human development, social welfare, and justice. ASEAN member states have to follow the principles of democracy, respect for fundamental freedoms, and protect human rights and promote social justice. Burma military regime ratified ASEAN Charter on July 18, 2008. Although Burma military regimes signed on both international charter and regional charters, they did not follow the rules and agreements. They always violate the promises and agreements both in the domestic local Burmese society and in the global international community.

In my understanding, US Foreign Policy in Asia plays a vital role to implement the genuine democracy because Southeast Asia has no genuine democratic countries or no free zones. I realize that your “three D’s” engaged foreign policy outlines in Southeast Asia focus on defense, diplomacy, development. But although democracy is inherent in these three pillars, there is long process and urban area reconstruction targets. Indeed, in Burma this transitional situation needs the US’s “carrot and stick” policy and needs democratic transitional processes such as setting up Truth Commission, binding reconciliation dialogue, interim government for constitution and free and fair election, and genuine democracy political system such as constitution that guarantees justice, freedom, human rights, and reconstruction of federal unity with ethnic minorities so that Burma will become a new complete democratic country. Instead of these facts, Burma military regimes forcefully set up the 2008 sham constitution that guaranteed their consistency of brutal power. Indeed, Burma’s genuine democracy movement will absolutely change political landscape, both domestic Burma politics and regional geo-political environment Southeast Asia in the future because the people of Southeast Asian countries are demanding freedom and democracy for their human security in daily life. For the US foreign policy, you focus on Burma genuine democracy movement than other two disputes which are Taiwan issue and South China Sea issue. However, we, Burmese genuine democracy activists have to protest against injustice and lawlessness in Burma. We assume that the situation in Burma is a threat not only to its own people, but to the region and to the international community. Injustice and lack of freedom in the country mean injustice of and lack of freedom for the rest of global society because it threats human security and justice everywhere else. For these circumstances, we would like to urge you to continue to use smart sanctions on Thein Sein regime of USDA in accordance with section 3,4,5,6,7 of “Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003(Public Law 108-61)” in section 152 of the Trade Act of 1974.

In summary, we, International Foundation for Burma National Congress (IFBNC), set up structures and processes that will analyze and determine the validity of any election and a regime there with appointees mandated by the 2008 militarily founded Constitution. That is why, we are appealing to you with this peaceful demonstration in front of the White House, and Capitol grounds on March 24, 2012. We demand:

(1)To eliminate and destroy 2008 sham constitution in Burma,

(2)To withdraw Burmese army from ethnic minority territories including Kachin area, and Karen area,

(3)To stop injustice and coercive behaviors such as the case of Saya Daw U Gambiya, Shwe Nyawar Saya Daw, Saya Daw U Gawthita, and Shin Nyana

(4)To release all political prisoners including U Aye Myint, ethnic minority prisoners, Ko Than Zaw, Ko Aye Aung,

(5)To continue to use  smart sanctions (Burmese Freedom and democracy Act) and pressure mechanism to Thein Sein regime and Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA).

            (6)To stop Chinese Government’s exploitation on Myitsone hydropower Plant Project

Thank you for your pay attention to this letter.

Sincerely,

 

(Signed)

Ye Htut

President of Executive Directors

International Foundation for Burma National Congress

Cc: Vice-President of the United States of America

-The Chairman, members of the Committees on Appropriations and Foreign Relations of the Senate

-The Chairman, members of the Committees on Appropriations and International Relations of the House of Representatives

- The Honorable Hillary Rodham Clinton, Secretary of State, U.S. Department of State

- The Honorable Derek Mitchell, Special Representative and Policy Coordinator for

Burma, U.S. Department of State, Washington, DC

ifbncexecutive@gmail.com  / http://www.ifbnc.org  , http://www.ifbnc.org/bur