Asia-Pacific, Headlines, Human Rights

BURMA: Pro-Democracy Activists Break New Ground

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, May 30 2007 (IPS) - Burmese political exiles in Thailand are relishing the thrust made by some 500 pro-democracy activists on the streets of Rangoon, the former capital. On Sunday, they stared down the country&#39s military dictatorship by staging a public rally for freedom.

&#39&#39It was amazing; the silence has been definitely broken,&#39&#39 says Khin Ohmar, head of the Network for Development and Democracy (NDD), an umbrella organisation of Burmese political groups in exile fighting for change back home. &#39&#39This Sunday marks a new stage in the struggle for political space.&#39&#39

Few exiles like her were prepared for this turn out of the Burmese public on the streets of Rangoon for an event led by a respected body of former student leaders, the 88-Generation. &#39&#39This confirms the growing dissatisfaction with the regime, and that people are prepared to come out and protest even at the risk of getting arrested,&#39&#39 she said in an interview.

During a two-week period ahead of this outpouring of dissent, the military regime had arrested some 60 pro-democracy activists who had gone to pagodas to pray for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, the pro-democracy leader who has spent over 11 of the past 17 years under house arrest. May 27 marked four years since the Nobel Peace Laureate&#39s most recent spell in detention. The junta extended it, as predicted by many.

The protest rally – which included people chanting &#39Free Aung San Suu Kyi,&#39 carrying lit candles and releasing dozens of balloons bearing the same freedom message – comes after another development that hints at a shift in attitudes towards the public display of dissent. Weeks earlier, close to 100 people showed up at a court in the Hin Thata district, near Rangoon, to lend support to two human rights activists who had been beaten up by goons linked to the junta and then arrested.

&#39&#39This is happening because the people are realising that the momentum is in their favour now than before,&#39&#39 says Khin Myo Htwe, editor of &#39New Era&#39, a monthly Burmese magazine published out of Thailand. &#39&#39The political and economic hardships cannot be ignored.&#39&#39


The National League for Democracy (NLD), the opposition party that Suu Kyi heads, has even confirmed that the public turnout for the weekend event was &#39&#39impressive,&#39&#39 she told IPS. &#39&#39NLD sources have told us that this year saw the most number of people come to their office than in the recent past. It is very significant.&#39&#39

Those who did openly identify with the NLD were there for another reason, too. The weekend also marks the anniversary of the parliamentary election held on May 27 in 1990, where the NLD secured a landslide victory, winning 81 percent of the 485-member Constituent Assembly, but the outcome of which the junta refused to recognise.

A year ago, when May 27 approached, there was hardly a hint of public defiance to secure the freedom of Suu Kyi and show dissent against the oppressive policies of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), the official name of the junta. The silence was an echo of an atmosphere that had taken hold after May 30, 2003, when Suu Kyi was detained.

The NLD leader and members of her party had been attacked that day by SPDC thugs in Depayin, in northern Burma. An estimated 70 NLD supporters were killed. Suu Kyi&#39s journey there was marked by the thousands of people who came to listen to her at public rallies for democracy.

&#39&#39Since the May 2003 arrest of Daw Suu Kyi, there was complete silence; nobody knew what to do,&#39&#39 says Khin Ohmar.

What is behind this steadily increasing attempt to secure political space is the success of men like Min Ko Naing, a respected student leader who was released from prison in 2004 after 15 years of solitary confinement for his political beliefs. He is in the vanguard of the 88-Generation, which is made up of former university student leaders who led a pro-democracy uprising in 1988 that was brutally crushed by the military regime.

Since September last year, the 88-Generation have mounted a series of campaigns to test the limits of the SPDC. They have ranged from multi-religious prayer meetings, inviting the public to wear white to express solidarity for an honest system to the collection of signatures for a petition to secure the release of Suu Kyi and the over 1,100 political prisoners. In early January, the student leaders launched a letter-writing campaign to inform the junta about their grievances.

&#39&#39They want more people to participate in the political process,&#39&#39 says Bo Kyi, a ranking member of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a group that champions for the rights and freedoms of those jailed in Burma. &#39&#39They are tapping into the growing dissatisfaction with the regime.&#39&#39

And the growing number of international voices concerned about political oppression in the South-east Asian nation will be a boost to this emerging trend for more political space, say analysts. The period leading to the day Suu Kyi&#39s detention was extended was marked by new names joining the international coalition calling for the release of her and the other prisoners.

In the United States, Laura Bush, wife of President George W. Bush, was among those who came out for the cause of democracy in Burma. Former U.S. presidents George Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter were among the 59 former world leaders who signed a letter urging the junta to release the South-east Asian country&#39s pro-democracy icon.

 
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