Online
Petition
His Excellency Ban Ki-Moon
Secretary-General of the United Nations
New York, New York 10017
Dear Secretary General,
We, the undersigned, are writing to respectfully urge
you to put the situation in Burma on the formal agenda of the United
Nations Security Council and to use your good offices to support the
passage of a binding resolution requiring the restoration of democracy
to Burma.
We warmly welcome the first United Nations Security
Council briefing on Burma conducted by your office in December of 2005.
However, the briefing was only a first step to bringing resolution to
the current crisis in Burma. We believe the increasingly unstable situation
in Burma represents a threat, not only to the people of Burma, but to
international peace and security. As a result, the United Nations Security
Council has an obligation to intervene.
There is great urgency in this request because the
situation in Burma continues to deteriorate. As numerous reports make
clear, Burma is ruled by one of the world's most brutal military juntas.
Abuses being committed by the military regime include:
1. The continuing detention of the world's only imprisoned
Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Aung San Suu Kyi.
2. Imprisoning and torturing opponents, including more
than 1,100 political prisoners, thirteen of whom are fellow members
of Parliament.
3. Using rape as a weapon of war.
4. Forcibly recruiting up to 70,000 child soldiers,
far more than any other army in the world.
5. Causing at least 700,000 refugees, with more to
come, to flee across Burma's borders into neighboring countries.
6. The SPDC Army has forced over 500,000 villagers
from their land. These people remain in Burma as internal refugees.
They live and barely survive in the jungles and mountains of eastern
Burma. Their only desire is to return home and live in peace.
7. Burning or otherwise destroying 2,700 villages.
8. Forcing humanitarian aid organizations such as Doctors
without Borders (France) and the UN's Global Fund on HIV/AIDS, Malaria,
and Tuberculosis, to leave Burma because the junta refuses to permit
them to carry out their work.
9. Maintaining Burma’s status as the largest
producer of illegal methamphetamines in Southeast Asia, causing devastation
of individuals and families throughout the region.
10. Conducting a new military and brutal offensive
against Burma’s ethnic Karen minority. The acts of aggression
against the Karen include the shooting of unarmed civilians and children,
burning villages, rape, torture, and mutilation.
In recent years the United Nations has employed many
diplomatic initiatives in relation to Burma. Two consecutive envoys
from the your office and four other Special Rapporteurs from the United
Nations Commission on Human Rights have failed to elicit reform from
the regime. You have called for democratic transition in Burma by 2006,
but so far the regime has failed to respond.
The United Nations is not the only body to have failed
in its attempts at diplomacy with the military junta. The European Union
has sent missions representing the EU requesting change in Burma, again
to no avail. Burma’s neighboring countries, including Malaysia,
Indonesia, the Philippines, and Singapore have failed in bilateral diplomacy,
and recent requests for reform from the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) have been rebuffed.
The regime in Burma is clearly unwilling to respond
to reasonable diplomatic requests. The responsibility for failure in
these efforts rests solely with Burma's military junta. The international
community cannot allow the current impasse to continue. It is now time
for the United Nations Security Council to intervene. It has the power
to pass a binding resolution requiring the regime to engage in genuine
negotiations and begin a transition to democracy in Burma.
There is ample precedent for a Security Council resolution
on Burma. The Council has passed resolutions on many countries, including
Haiti, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Liberia where conditions
less severe than those in Burma existed. Failure by the Security Council
to act on Burma will cause the death of more innocent civilians.
The recent report, A Threat To The Peace, commissioned
by former Czech President Vaclav Havel and South Africa's Archbishop
Desmond Tutu provides detailed reasons on why the Security Council should
act, and the legal basis on which it can do so. The Havel-Tutu report
recommends UN Security Council action that would require Burma's military
regime to work with the United Nations on a plan for transition. Since
the report was produced, the Council unanimously adopted Resolution
1674, providing further justification for Security Council intervention.
At the December 16, 2005, United Nations Security Council
briefing on Burma, you suggested a course of action on Burma at the
Council. We support your recommendation and we urge the Council to adopt
a resolution following the recommendations by Mr. Havel and Mr. Tutu.
This resolution should:
1) Require the government of Burma to work with the
UN Secretary General in implementing a plan for national reconciliation.
2) Request the UN Secretary General remain involved
in the reconciliation process and require him to report back to the
Council on a regular basis.
3) Urge the Government of Burma to ensure the immediate,
safe, and unhindered access to all parts of the country for the United
Nations and international humanitarian organizations to provide humanitarian
assistance to the most vulnerable groups of the population, including
internally displaced people.
4) Call for the immediate and unconditional release
of Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners in Burma.
Thank you for your attention to this most serious matter.
Sincerely,
cc: Representatives of the United Nations Security
Council
