Until last year, when I told people I was from Burma (Myanmar), people would say: “Oh, I hear it's really bad there. Isn't that where that woman is under arrest.” Now when I tell people I am from Myanmar they often say: “Oh, aren't things getting better there now?” The answer is no, but the fact that some people have this impression is good news for Myanmar's new dictator, Thein Sein.
Aung San Suu Kyi may have been released, and is free to celebrate her birthday, but about 2,000 political prisoners remain in jail, and are treated worse than in the past. Many, including my father, have been moved to remote prisons to make it harder for family members to visit. More than 150 are being denied medical care for illnesses, a cruel form of torture that causes suffering and even death. And they are serving much longer sentences than before, with many set to stay in prison for 65 years.
Recently political prisoners protesting about their conditions were thrown into “dog cells,” prison cages for dogs where they are forced to act like dogs and beg for food and are often not even allowed to talk.
Ethnic minorities
At the same time Thein Sein has stepped up attacks against ethnic minorities in Myanmar's border areas. Amnesty International and Burma Campaign UK have received reports of Myanmarese army soldiers mortar-bombing villages, assaulting women and executing and torturing people. Thein Sein is breaking 20-year ceasefire agreements with armed ethnic groups and bringing the country to the verge of civil war.
When the previous dictator, Than Shwe, came to power in 1992, he admitted that there were political prisoners, and released more than 400. In contrast, Thein Sein denies political prisoners even exist.
With human rights abuses on the increase, the threat of widespread civil war and no genuine political change, you would expect the international community to be taking urgent action. Instead, the response has been to wait and see what the new dictator does.
This has been the standard response to events in Myanmar for my entire life. I was born in 1989, a year when the dictatorship was rounding up and jailing leaders of the democracy movement, including Aung San Suu Kyi. At the time the international community argued we must wait and see what happened with elections planned for 1990. The regime lost the elections but refused to hand over power.
In 1994 I started school in Rangoon (Yangon). At the time the international community was arguing we must wait and see what happened at a national convention that was drafting a new constitution. It was another 13 years before that convention finished its task — a constitution designed to legalise dictatorship, passed in a rigged referendum in 2008.
Elections and after
From 2008 we were told to wait and see what happened in elections that were held in 2010. The elections were rigged and the main pro-democracy party, the National League for Democracy, was banned. In any case, under the new constitution parliament is completely powerless: a showcase to present an image of change, while the generals take off their uniforms and run the country just as before.
Now we are told to wait and see what Thein Sein's new government does. We don't need to wait any longer. We already know his regime sends soldiers to assault women. We already know his regime bombs villages, killing civilians. We already know that his regime tortures those who peacefully protest for their rights. Thein Sein is no reformer, it is business as usual — and while the world says we must wait and see, my people are suffering and dying.
It is time for urgent and concrete action from the international community, there must be no more “wait and see”.
Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General, must appoint a new UN envoy to Myanmar and restart UN efforts to secure political dialogue between the dictatorship, Aung San Suu Kyi and ethnic groups. Ban must ensure the envoy has the backing of world leaders in achieving two urgent objectives: the release of all political prisoners, and a nationwide ceasefire. When it meets later this year, the UN General Assembly should establish a commission of inquiry into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity.
We know from experience that when real pressure is applied the dictatorship is forced to respond. A UN inquiry is likely to reduce human rights abuses, and encourage Thein Sein to start dialogue, because he'll be afraid of real consequences if he doesn't.
The international community must face the fact that there will be no reform in Myanmar without real pressure. “Wait and see” costs lives. It's time for action. ( Waihnin Pwint Thon is a campaigns officer at Burma Campaign UK, and the daughter of Ko Mya Aye, one of the Generation 88 student leaders who is currently serving a 65-year jail sentence inMyanmarfor his part in the 2007 protests .) — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2011
