Take UN military interventions on the trouble situations of Burma

Date: Saturday 9 August 2008 / HQ08A1

Dear Mr. Ban Ki-moon and Members of the United Nations,

We are writing to urge you in order to take military interventions on the trouble situations of Burma. The situation in Burma continues to deteriorate with no degree of measurable improvement. Members of the international community, including governments, coalitions of governments, nongovernmental organizations and many United Nations (UN) bodies, have reported grave human rights violations, sustained conflict between the Government of Burma (the State Peace and Development Council, or SPDC) and ethnic factions, and failures by the SPDC to move forward in any meaningful way with the national reconciliation it promised in its "roadmap" to democracy. As a result of the SPDC's refusal to implement recommendations made by the UN—in particular by the Office of the Secretary-General—Burma threatens the peace and stability of the region. Therefore, UN Security Council (Security Council) action is both warranted and necessary.

• Charged with the critical mission of maintaining peace and security between nations, the UN Security Council possesses unparalleled authority to make binding decisions that uphold the United Nations' commitment to prevent war, preserve human rights, and promote international political stability.

• Under Chapter VII, Article 39 of the UN Charter, the Security Council possesses sole authority to "determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression." As articulated in Article 33 of the Charter, whenever the Council "deems necessary," at "any stage" of a dispute, it may intervene "to ensure prompt and effective action" to safeguard peace and security.

• Action by the Security Council can include the adoption of simple and clear resolutions requiring action on the part of the offending government or group to curtail its aggressive or threatening acts, sanctions against the perpetrating government or group, or the authorization of a UN peacekeeping force to enter the territory. Under Article 25 of the UN Charter, all members of the UN "agree to accept and carry out the decisions of the Security Council."

• Relying on Chapter VII, the Security Council has intervened in such countries as Sierra Leone, Lebanon, Cyprus, East Timor, Sudan, Afghanistan, Haiti, Yemen, Rwanda, Liberia, and Cambodia when it determined the situations in those countries to constitute a "threat to the peace" that required intervention to protect and preserve international stability. Although there is no precise definition of what represents a "threat to the peace," the Security Council—through its past actions on a case-by-case evaluation—has elucidated a list of factors that can collectively constitute such a threat to the peace.

• Because the Security Council takes a case-by-case approach, no one factor or set of factors is dispositive. Each past case was a unique set of circumstances; the Security Council considered the totality of each situation in determining that a threat to the peace was taking place.

• To guide our appeal, we first reviewed initial Security Council resolutions that were adopted in response to internal conflict situations (when a government was in control of the country) that the Security Council deemed a threat to the peace. This review enabled us to identify the criteria that helped the Council make its decisions. These criteria are utilized in this report as the determining factors relevant to the case of Burma. These factors include: (1) the overthrow of a democratically elected government; (2) conflict among governmental bodies and insurgent armies or armed ethnic

• Furthermore, the extent to which some of these factors exist in Burma is considerably worse than in other countries in which the Security Council has chosen to act:

Overthrow of Democratically-Elected Government: A military regime overthrew the democratically-elected government in 1962. In 1990, the military regime permitted elections to take place. The result: the National League for Democracy (NLD) became the democratically elected government of Burma, winning more than 80 percent of the seats in Parliament. The NLD was never permitted to take power and NLD members have since been harassed, jailed, and murdered. NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi has remained under house arrest in Burma since 1990 with only intermittent periods of release.

Conflict Between Central Governments and Ethnic Factions: Serious, protracted fighting between the SPDC and various ethnic groups seeking autonomy and freedom from oppression has been consistent and ongoing, even in areas where non-binding ceasefire agreements have been made.

Widespread Internal Humanitarian/Human Rights Violations: The SPDC has committed grave, systematic, and widespread human rights abuses against the people in Burma, including violations similar to but even worse than in other cases previously considered by the Security Council. Some violations that are unique to Burma, or particularly pervasive, include the destruction of more than 9,500 villages since 2006, massive forced relocations, rape of ethnic minorities by SPDC soldiers, and widespread forced labor. As many as 80,000 children have been forced to become soldiers by the regime—more than in any other country in the world. Additional violations include the denial of political rights and free speech, harassment of political activists, torture, and murder.

Outflow of Refugees: Almost 900,000 refugees have poured out of Burma in recent years as a result of the grave conditions created by the Government of Burma. The government is responsible for a decline in the economic situation so alarming that Burma is now one of the poorest countries in the world, providing its people little or no access to health care or education.

Drug Production and Trafficking: Burma is one of the world's leading producers of heroin and amphetamine-type stimulants. The trafficking and use of these drugs are of enormous concern to the international community and to the region particularly.

In addition to those factors considered in prior cases by the Security Council, the Security Council adopted Resolution 1308 in 2000 calling attention to the threat that the spread of HIV/AIDS poses to international security. Burma has been a primary contributor to the spread of HIV/AIDS in Southeast Asia. Because Burma is the heroin supplier for the region, HIV strains that originated there are now spreading to neighboring countries along the heroin routes. The flourishing sex industry is another conduit enabling HIV to spread within Burma itself.

In conclusion, while Burma is similar to the other countries considered in this appeal, in that all of the factors taken from relevant Security Council resolutions are present in Burma, the situation in Burma is particularly unique, especially considering the severity of those factors. Additionally, in no prior cases do other distinguishing factors appear, such as Burma's contribution to the spread of HIV/AIDS. The persistence of these circumstances in Burma and the region, in conjunction with the failure of the regime to implement any reform or enable outside organizations to facilitate progress, makes the overall magnitude of the threat to peace in Burma substantially higher than it was in cases where the Security Council has acted in the past.

As a result of the severity of the overall situation in Burma and in consideration of all of these factors, which are analyzed in detail in this appeal, the situation in Burma constitutes "a threat to the peace," thereby authorizing Security Council action. Binding Security Council intervention is a necessary international and multilateral vehicle to restore the peace, promote national reconciliation, and facilitate a return to democratic rule.

Therefore, we strongly urge the UN Security Council to take up the situation of Burma immediately. Preserving peace, security, and stability in the region and world—as well as achieving national reconciliation in Burma—now requires nothing less.

Thank you,
Zaw Win
General Director
Arakan National Organization for Human Rights and Justice (ANOHRJ)
Arakan State
Union of Burma
Email: anohrj@gmail.com