Exiled Groups Seek UN Action on Burma

Three prominent exiled Burmese dissident groups have called on UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to urge members of the Security Council to aid the people of Burma.

The All Burma Monks' Alliance, the 88 Generation Students and the All Burma Federation of Students Union in a letter to Ban said, “Now is the time for the UN Security Council to intervene in our country’s affairs. Burma cannot afford further delay.”

Ban has scheduled a meeting of his ad-hoc Friends on Burma on Thursday.

“We request you to ask the members of the Security Council to convene an emergency meeting to discuss the situation in Burma as soon as possible,” said the letter. “From the meeting, we would like to call for a collective and effective action, with an aim to stop the regime from continuing its dangerous path to militarism and start negotiating with democratic forces and ethnic representatives for a peaceful political settlement.”

Referring to Burma's recently announced election laws, the three groups urged that the international community and the UN not endorse and recognize the regime’s electoral laws and the election, which they said goes against democratic norms and undermines genuine democracy from taking place.

“We also would like to reiterate your recent statements on Burma that, “without the participation of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and all key political prisoners, the elections would not be inclusive.”

The people of Burma have never accepted the regime’s 2008 Constitution designed to enshrine permanent military rule in the country, said the letter.

The three groups said that despite persistent demands by the UN and the international community to create the necessary conditions to make the 2010 elections inclusive, transparent and fair, the regime has deliberately failed to heed the calls.

“Instead, the regime responded by issuing a set of unfair and unjust electoral laws, which will beget undemocratic elections,” said the letter. “In addition to removing Aung San Suu Kyi and over 2,100 political prisoners from the country’s political process, the regime harbors plans to intensify its military assaults against ethnic cease-fire troops who refuse to obey its orders.”

The groups said they supported UN Special Rapporteur Tomas Quintana's recommendation to the UN to establish a commission of inquiry to investigate possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma.
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