Celebs Call for Action Against Burma

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The following appears in the BANGKOK POST:

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Celebrities Seek Action Against Burma

 

(Agencies)

 

Actors and musicians - Tim Robbins, Peter Gabriel and others - have called on the UN Security Council to approve its first resolution on Burma, whose military regime has waged a brutal offensive against ethnic minorities.

 

The appeal came in letters sent to the office of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan after nearly 500 activists gathered in New York earlier in the week to highlight the humanitarian crisis in Burma, the human rights group Witness said.

 

"It is past time for the issue of Burma to be addressed by the UN's most powerful body," the letters said. "In eastern Burma, over 3,000 villages have been destroyed, forcibly abandoned or forcibly relocated in the past 10 years."

 

The United States is circulating a draft Security Council resolution to press Burma's military government to change policies that constitute a threat to international peace and security.

 

The letters said the council should approve the resolution before the end of the year.

 

Celebrities who signed also included Kate Pierson of The B-52s, Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal, Nile Rodgers of the band Chic, Grammy-nominated Benin singer Angelique Kidjo and American singer Suzanne Vega.

 

Human rights groups say government troops have torched villages, killed civilians, raped women and herded villagers into military-controlled zones in an offensive against the Karen ethnic minority in eastern Burma.

 

The government, which denies committing atrocities, has waged a nearly year-long offensive to suppress an insurgency among the Karen.

 

The Thailand Burma Border Consortium, the main aid agency caring for tens of thousands of refugees along the Thai-Burmese border, estimates that the violence has forced 82,000 people from their homes this year.

 

Since 1996, more than 3,000 villages have been destroyed or abandoned in eastern Burma, and more than 1 million people have been displaced, according to the agency's most recent report. Abuses have also occurred in other ethnic minority areas.

 

The US and other countries have also urged the junta to free political prisoners including pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest.

 

The US , which has slapped economic sanctions on Burma, faces a struggle in getting the Security Council to take tough action against the country. China and Russia strongly oppose putting the country on the agenda, and both are veto-wielding members of the Security Council.

 

The junta took power in 1988 after crushing the democracy movement led by Suu Kyi. In 1990, it refused to hand over power when Suu Kyi's party won a landslide election victory.

[Guest Steve1903]

There's no chance of any of the "superpowers" taking action against Burma while they are all vying for position to win the best trade deals etc once Burma's enslaved people get near completion on the country's infrastructure. Yeah sure, the likes of the US and UK will mouth off and send letters and delegations over to Burma for some jawjaw but the reality is that money talks and for politicians that's all that counts. "500 people demonstrating"? the likely hood is that Bush doesn't even know and if he does he sure won't care.

[Guest wowpow]

I am under the strong impression that the USA and UK have been applying sanctions to Burma/Myanmar for decades which is why one cannot use credit cards and there are no ATM's there amongst many other things. It's being going on so long that it's an arguements for the uselessness of sanctions against a totalitarian Government.

 

I hear that in recent years China has been trading with Burma and increased it annual income enormously.

 

Mu other information is that the countries infrastructure is not improving in anyway. In fact it is crumbling away. I remember visiting a gem factory in Chiang Rai and nthey told us that the gems can take 3 months to be delivered as the roads are so bad.

 

Ex. P.M. Taksin made stalwart efforts to ease the tensions between Thailand and Burma which looked as if they having some effect but all this seems to have come to nothing and the borders a full of tension as the Burmese Government attack the Karen and Shan and thousands of them flee to Thailand for safety. The US has been brilliant in accepting a number as citizens and many are still in UN refugee camps.