[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 19 (Monday, February 28, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: February 28, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                        BURMA'S AUNG SAN SUU KYI

  Mr. RICHARDSON. Madam Speaker, today I wish to inform the House about 
a recent trip I undertook on behalf of the House Intelligence Committee 
to Rangoon, Burma. Burma in Southeast Asia pops up in the news and in 
the public conscience infrequently, but in the days ahead my prediction 
is that international attention will focus on this Nation, will focus 
on the United States policy toward this nation and international policy 
toward this nation and on one valiant woman, Aung San Suu Kyi.
  The public has yet to learn about this remarkable woman, a woman I 
had the privilege of visiting for 6 hours while in Rangoon. She has 
been under house arrest for the past 5 years. Her party won conclusive 
elections 4 years ago, 80 percent of the vote, and the military 
government proceeded to put her under house arrest and jailed thousands 
of members of her political party.
  Today she is still under house arrest, able to see only her family 
physician and a very narrow circle of personal individuals. I had the 
privilege of visiting her; the first nonfamily member in the last 5 
years to see her. The Burmese Government, responding to a request that 
I had made last year, agreed to let me visit with her for a period of 
approximately 6 hours over 2 days.
  Madam Speaker, I can tell you that she is a woman of conscience, a 
tower of intellectual strength, a woman of principles. She asks for 
nothing, except democracy in her country. She asks for nothing in terms 
of personal assistance from the government as they keep her in 
detention. She is allowed to see only her family members on occasion. 
Like Nelson Mandela, while in captivity she spends an enormous amount 
of time meditating, speaking about human rights, and writing.
  Madam Speaker, I also had an opportunity to spend 4 hours with 
General Khin Nyunt, who is the head of military intelligence and 
represents the Burmese Government.
  I proposed a dialog--talks between Aung San Suu Kyi and the leader of 
the Burmese Government, General Khin Nyunt. These talks, hopefully, 
would lead to political reconciliation. In the days ahead I am hopeful 
that a decision will be made and the Burmese Government, which has made 
some modest steps toward democracy and respect for human rights will 
conclude that: If they want to improve policy with the United States, 
if they want to improve their standing in the international community, 
they will engage in true political dialog with Aung San Suu Kyi. She 
must be set free. She must be released unconditionally. The thousands 
of political prisoners in Insein prison should also be allowed freedom, 
and there should be an effort to legitimize the political convention 
that is going on right now in Burma. It is a convention that does not 
include true opposition such as Aung San Suu Kyi.
  Madam Speaker, I undertook this mission as a Member of the U.S. 
Congress and a member of the Committee on Intelligence. I was not a 
Presidential envoy, although I did carry a letter of support from 
President Clinton to Aung San Suu Kyi which was released by the White 
House last week and very firmly states America's support for this 
valiant woman in her quest for freedom and human rights.
  In preparation for this trip, I spent 5 hours in London with Dr. 
Michael Aris, the husband of Aung San Suu Kyi and an Oxford scholar, to 
learn his thoughts on my critical meeting with his wife.
  In addition to that meeting I held in Burma, which included sessions 
with U.S. Embassy officials of the Burmese Foreign Ministry and prison 
visits, I also spoke to numerous Burmese citizens in Rangoon. In 
addition, I met with various groups in Washington, with officials from 
the United Nations, and with many others that have studied Burma to a 
far greater degree than me.

  Madam Speaker, I am not a Burmese expert. I came to be involved as a 
member of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus on the Burma issue 
which, along with Representative Rohrabacher, in a truly bipartisan 
effort we attempted to get some political prisoners out of Burma and 
met with success. In addition, with several other Members we 
participated in an amendment that gave financial assistance to some of 
the Burmese refugees that are currently on the Thai border.
  This is the second trip that I have undertaken to Burma. I first made 
the request in August 1993 in Rangoon to see Aung San Suu Kyi. The 
ruling government said perhaps if I returned I would be given that 
opportunity to talk to her.
  In my judgment, it was a productive 2 days in Rangoon. Let me say 
that my visit was completely coordinated with the State Department, 
with the White House and officials in the Clinton administration. We 
spoke with one voice. I emphasized the strong support of the American 
Government and the American people for Aung San Suu Kyi and her 
democratic Burma. She made clear her determination to remain in Burma 
and pursue efforts to establish a democratic representative government 
responsive to the needs of the people.
  Aung San Suu Kyi also expressed her desire for a genuine high level 
dialog with the Burmese Government. She believes a substantive dialog 
between the Burmese Government and the country's democratic forces is 
the only way out of Burma's current political impasse. She also 
provided me with her responses to messages from President Clinton, U.N. 
Secretary General Boutros Ghali, and U.N. High Commissioner for 
Refugees and Human Rights, Jose Ayala Lasso of Equador. I understand in 
the days ahead these messages will be released.
  During my meeting with the Chairman of the Burmese Government, Lt. 
Gen. Khin Nyunt, I expressed my appreciation for the humanitarian 
gesture of permitting me to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi and to visit 
four political prisoners in Insein prison. I made clear United States 
concerns about human rights and democratization in Burma, including the 
need for an immediate and unconditional release of Aung San Suu Kyi and 
all other prisoners of conscience, and the announcement for a 
timetable, a realistic timetable for transition to democracy. General 
Khin Nyunt informed me that his government is moving ahead with his 
plans to establish a constitutional government. He also strongly 
expressed his desire for positive, better relations with the United 
States.

                              {time}  1230

  I relayed to General Khin Nyunt the desires of Aung San Suu Kyi as 
well as my desire to see a high-level dialog with his government. He 
stated in his reply that this is not alone for him to decide, but that 
his ruling government will consider authorizing him to engage in talks 
with Aung San Suu Kyi and that consideration will also be given to 
another proposal that I made, and that is that the International 
Committee for the Red Cross be permitted to visit political prisoners 
in Burma as well as to allow NGO's nongovernment organization 
activities in the country.
  All of these matters are being considered by this Government. The 
release of Aung San Suu Kyi, whether the government enters into a 
political dialog with her, whether the International Red Cross is 
permitted to visit Insein prison, whether NGO's are allowed to move 
ahead and to participate in the activities of the country, I believe 
that if these efforts are granted, if these initiatives are taken by 
the Burmese Government, that these are very positive steps.
  Let me stress it is my view that the situation in Burma is at a 
critical crossroads, and that the Burmese basically should settle their 
problems on their own terms and in their own way. This is why I 
proposed that Aung San Suu Kyi meet with Gen. Khin Nyunt.
  My 2 days in Burma will, hopefully, further getting Aung San Suu Kyi 
and Gen. Khin Kyunt together for talks.
  I should say, when I mention talks and dialog, that this is something 
that the Burmese must settle for themselves. However, the international 
community can assure that these talks are meaningful.
  What we need to do, and it is my hope that the United States 
Government, like Japan, Sweden, and the United Nations, be catalysts in 
this effort, but recognize that the responsibility and the main thrust 
of political dialog should be undertaken between the democratic forces 
represented by Aung San Suu Kyi and the ruling government. In other 
words, let us allow the Burmese to settle this for themselves, but let 
us stand on behalf of human rights, let us stand on behalf of 
democracy, and as I made clear, let us stand behind what Aung San Suu 
Kyi represents.
  I think it is particularly important also that other players engaged 
in these efforts, in particular, Ambassador Yozo Yokoda, the head of 
the U.N. Human Rights Commission. Ambassador Yokoda should be allowed 
to visit Aung San Suu Kyi. Others Members of Congress, other Members of 
the Senate in the past have asked to see her, they too should be 
allowed. Now that I was allowed to see her, others from the 
international community and human rights groups, should be allowed to 
engage in discussions with her. But most hopefully, many of these 
issues can be settled if a dialog takes place between Aung San Suu Kyi 
and Gen. Khin Nyunt.
  Let me again stress that I am simply an individual who is pleased 
with the gesture of the Burmese Government to allow me to be an 
individual to see her for the first time. As I have described her 
before. She is a woman of towering intellectual ability and strength of 
conscience. She is a woman of passion and commitment. She is a woman 
that stands for the best ideals of democracy. She is a woman that is 
practical and pragmatic and is ready to engage in talks on political 
reconciliation without any preconditions.
  I recognize that this is an issue which the United States is going to 
play an active and positive role in. I believe it is President 
Clinton's strong emphasis on human rights and democracy that made much 
of this possible.

  Through President Clinton's efforts and his administration, 
international pressure and for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi is 
having an effect in Burma. We have seen the release of some political 
prisoners in Burma. We have seen the presence of the International 
Human Rights Commission in the area. We have seen some dialog with 
ethnic groups. All of these are encouraging signs, but the Burmese 
Government must be remanded that more is necessary.
  Nothing, however, is more important than this high-level dialog with 
Aung San Suu Kyi and Gen. Khin Nyunt. Let me stress that I also believe 
the other side, Gen. Khin Nyunt, is a pragmatic individual who is 
sincere about wanting to heal the divisions in Burma.
  I think that some of the negotiations with the various dissident 
groups in his country should continue. But the key to political 
reconciliation is to talk to a woman of 49 years of age, a thin, slight 
woman who, nonetheless, represents at least 80 percent of the Burmese 
people and a large contingent of support in the international 
community.
  What is wrong with two individuals sitting down and trying to mesh 
their differences? That is all we are asking for, a dialog between two 
people to start the political reconciliation in this country that is 
rich in historical tradition, that is rich in the strength of its 
people, that is rich in its religious roots, that before 1988 had a 
very solid and positive relationship with the United States.
  Madam Speaker, it is my hope in the days ahead to speak again about 
the Aung San Suu Kyi issue in Burma. The United States is right now 
engaging in a policy review towards this country. It is important, as 
we pursue this policy review, that we stand behind Aung San Suu Kyi and 
democracy and human rights, that we, nonetheless, recognize that if 
talks take place between Aung San Suu Kyi and the Burmese Government, 
that that is an important gesture. It does not mean that we are going 
to have a normalization of relations, but at the same time, if there is 
a political dialog, if there is a release of political prisoners, if 
there is an assortment of measures that indicate that Burma is moving 
toward democracy, then you will see a normalization of relations.

  It is critically important, too, that the United Nations take a more 
active role. The U.S. Government, along with others, has called for a 
special envoy to get involved with the Aung San Suu Kyi and Burmese 
issues. It is important that the international community remain active 
on this issue and not allow the momentum of the last week shall.
  Because Burma is small and perhaps is not as strategically important 
to us as others, does not mean that the United States should not take a 
principled position on human rights. As we pursue an activist policy, 
that hopefully will speed democratization in Burma, the American people 
will see that policies on behalf of human rights and democracy are 
being carried out by the Clinton administration in many other areas 
including China, Southeast Asia, Central America, and Latin America. 
That and the administration's support for a United Nations component on 
human rights, is a clarion call that, once again, the Clinton 
administration human rights policy has notched another very positive 
development.
  I am here on behalf of many Democrats, Republicans, individuals 
around the country and around the globe who would like to see democracy 
in Burma. I urge my colleagues and those listening to watch and stand 
in support of this woman who is in solitary confinement, under house 
arrest. She deserves the attention of the world.
  Nelson Mandela has achieved much of his goal, now the world's 
attention moves to Burma. It moves with Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel 
Prize winner of several years ago who stands alone but stands on behalf 
of the light of democracy and human rights.
  Mr. Speaker, I submit for the Record the following material:


                                              The White House,

                                Washington, DC, February 10, 1994.
       Dear Daw Aung San Suu Kyi: Let me take the opportunity to 
     express again my deep concern about your welfare and to 
     applaud your remarkable courage in pursuing human rights and 
     democracy for the people of Burma. Despite your four and one-
     half years of detention, your determination and courage 
     continue to inspire friends of freedom around the world. 
     Recent resolutions adopted in the United Nations General 
     Assembly and the United Nations Human Rights Commission make 
     clear the international community's outrage over your 
     continued detention as well as that of all other prisoners of 
     conscience in Burma.
       I also want to assure you of the United States' continuing 
     support for the struggle to promote freedom in Burma. The 
     1990 elections handed your party an overwhelming mandate from 
     Burma's people and firmly rejected military rule. Obviously, 
     the path to democratic change must be worked out by the 
     Burmese themselves who have assigned you a key role in 
     bringing about such a democratic transition. We strongly 
     condemn the effort to deny you the right to participate 
     freely in the political life of Burma.
       You have my utmost admiration for your stand. Like your 
     courageous father, you symbolize the authentic aspirations of 
     the Burmese people. History is on the side of freedom 
     throughout the world and I remain confident that your cause 
     will prevail.
       Please accept my warmest personal regards.
           Sincerely,
                                                     Bill Clinton.
         From the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, The Most 
           Reverend Desmond M. Tutu, D.D. F.K.C.,
                       Cape Town, South Africa, February 21, 1994.
     Hon. Bill Richardson,
     Rayburn House Office Building,
     Washington, DC.
       Dear Congressman Richardson: Archbishop Desmond Tutu wishes 
     to commend you for your recent visit to Burma and meeting 
     with Aung San Suu Kyi. His Grace is in regular contact with 
     Ms. Michelle Bohana of the Institute for Asian Democracy, who 
     keeps him informed of the situation in Burma.
       The Archbishop and Mrs. Betty Williams are among those 
     Nobel Laureates, and others, who have been campaigning for 
     the release of Suu from house arrest and thus he applauds 
     your efforts in this regard, as well as encouraging the 
     return of Burma to democracy. His Grace and Mrs. Williams 
     also met with President Clinton to advise him and Vice 
     President Gore on the situation and hopes that the President 
     too may use his influence to persuade the SLORC to lift all 
     restrictions on Suu and the democratic movement in Burma.
       With sincere good wishes and praying God's blessing upon 
     you.
           Yours sincerely,
                                        Rev. Canon Rowan O. Smith.

          [From the (Bangkok, Thailand) Nation, Feb. 18, 1994]

          Suu Kyi's Inner Strength Will Free Burma From Slorc

       Burma scholar Josef Silverstein has every reason to be 
     convinced that Aung San Suu Kyi is Burma's woman of destiny.
       There is no other person who has achieved her status, love 
     and respect from the people of Burma and the support from 
     foreign governments who have appealed on her behalf. She is 
     her father's daughter--intelligent, honest, tough and 
     fearless, ``he writer in a chapter in Freedom from Fear--a 
     collection of Suu Kyi's writings edited by her husband 
     Michael Aris.
       The ruling Rangoon military junta's apparent refusal to 
     give her freedom after the completion of her five-year 
     detention in July, or expel her from the country, or take any 
     action other than the continuation of her house arrest; just 
     shows the extent to which they will go to cling to 
     illegitimate power.
       In the face of the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to her in 1991 
     for her fight for democracy and human rights in Burma and the 
     growing call from world leaders to free her, the State Law 
     and Order Restoration Council (Slonc) responded by 
     reiterating its position that she was free to go into 
     voluntary exile provided she renounced politics.


                           calm and resolute

       In her interview with the New York Times's Philip Shenon on 
     Monday, Sun Kyi proved Silverstein's words true. She is still 
     her father's daughter--and four and a half years under house 
     arrest have not dampened her spirit in the least.
       ``The concept of driving somebody out of their own country 
     is totally unacceptable to me. They have tried to presence me 
     to leave the country in ways that no selfrespecting 
     government should try,'' she told The New York Times.
       ``Whatever they do to me, that's between them and me; I can 
     take it,'' she added. * * *
       Shenon had this to say of Suu Kyi; ``She spoke in a calm; 
     resolute voice that betrayed none of the suffering of her 
     isolation.''
       Admirably, the National League for Democracy leader remains 
     as straightforward and dynamic as she was before her arrest 
     in 1989; Despite almost five years of being under heavy armed 
     guard at her own home and previous nutritional problems due 
     to lack of funds. Suu Kyi remains in reasonably good health.
       Also on Monday, US Congressman Bill Richardson, who is a 
     close associate of President Bill Clinton, held two rounds of 
     talks with Suu Kyi and met with Slore leader Lt. Gen. Khin 
     Nyunt in a shuttle diplomacy bid to try to get a dialogue 
     started.
       Clearly, Richardson's meeting was timed by the military 
     junta to coincide next week with the meeting of the UN Human 
     Rights Commission in Geneva, where Burma's appalling human 
     rights record will come under scrutiny.
       Slore recently removed guard posts around Suu Kyi's house 
     and the Nobel laureate's first meeting with non-family 
     foreigners since 1989 is intended by the military junta to be 
     seen by the world as a significant advance.
       But leopards never change their spots. Slore is still very 
     conscious of Suu Kyi's continuing power to influence events, 
     and because of this they have extended her five year 
     detention period by another year.
       Despite some small economic improvements for those 
     connected to the regime, popular opposition to the junta 
     remains just below the surface. The cowards that they are, 
     Slorc feels that if Suu Kyi was released before the junta 
     assures firm control over the new constitution and a 
     military-dominated government she would automatically become 
     a focus for that opposition.
       US Congressman Richardson delivered a personal letter from 
     Clinton to Suu Kyi in which the US president praised her for 
     her deep courage in pursuing human rights and democracy for 
     the Burmese people. Clinton also pledged continued US support 
     for the struggle to promote freedom in Burma.


                           A QUESTION OF TIME

       These brave words in support of Suu Kyi must be matched by 
     deeds. The United States is in an excellent position to push 
     for an arms and trade embargo against the military junta. * * 
     *
       That Burma's people are ``prospering'' because of Slorc's 
     external trade, made possible in large part by Asean's 
     ``constructive engagement'' policy, is just a big myth.
       International pressure can change the situation in Burma 
     and free Aung San Suu Kyi and other political detainees. For 
     Asean to continue to associate itself with a corrupt and 
     brutal military regime is indeed disgraceful.
       Aung San Suu Kyi's strength and fortitude in the face of 
     Slorc's repressive rule gives the Burmese people a model to 
     emulate. It's only a matter of time now before freedom comes 
     their way.

           [From the Bangkok (Thailand) Post, Feb. 17, 1994]

                  True Grit in the Face of Oppression

       How would you hold up after five years of solitary 
     confinement? What if you had either to serve an unjust, 
     indefinite prison term or surrender your deepest principles? 
     If your own government called you a ``dangerous subversive'', 
     would you take it personally?
       Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's interview on Monday with New York 
     Times reporter Philip Shenon, carried yesterday in the 
     Bangkok Post, shows that she has held up commendably well, 
     `to say' to say the least. Her own protestations to the 
     contrary, Suu Kyi more obviously than ever, belongs in the 
     very first rank of moral and political leaders who have 
     unblinkingly faced down oppression. No comparison to Mahatma 
     Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Vaclav Havel or any other figure 
     can possibly leave her wanting. Her abiding freedom from fear 
     bodes well indeed for the future of the country she cherishes 
     so dearly, and for the cause of democracy worldwide. 
     ``Whatever (the SLORC do to me . . . I can take it,'' she 
     said. ``What's more important is what they are doing to the 
     country.''
       Suu Kyl's remarks underscore several traits we know; 
     already she shared with the very greatest of human beings. 
     She is genuinely humble. She learned she had won the 1991 
     Nobel Peace Prize from the BBC, we now know. ``I felt 
     tremendous humility and tremendous gratitude,'' she said on 
     Monday. ``I was very grateful. The prize meant that the whole 
     movement for democracy will receive a lot more recognition.'' 
     She remembers the suffering of others and the purpose of her 
     own suffering. ``Isolation is not difficult,'' she said. ``I 
     know that other people have suffered a lot more. People have 
     died.''
       She is unbending in her bedrock principles. ``The concept 
     of driving somebody out of their own country is totally 
     unacceptable to me,'' she said. On whether she would accept 
     the junta's offer of freedom if she agreed to leave Burma, 
     she said, ``That is never going to happen.'' She calls the 
     SLORC's planned constitutional convention, ``an absolute 
     farce. . . . ``If people are not allowed to speak and if they 
     are just there to nod their heads, there's nothing. It's not 
     a convention. I can't accept it as something that seriously 
     represents the will of the people at all.''
       She eschews any dictatorial ambitions a lesser person might 
     have nursed. ``I'm not interested in any sort of personality 
     cult or personality politics. This is what you've got to 
     avoid from the beginning. We want to see a democracy based on 
     social principles, not on personality.''
       Perhaps unfortunately, Suu Kyi has become the symbol of 
     democracy and unity in Burma. Democratic politics in Burma to 
     an extent is personality politics. Ironically, if anyone can 
     change that, surely it is Suu Kyi. Through the interview, she 
     sent a message to her allies, ``They must stop squabbling 
     among themselves,'' she pleaded. ``If there's something on 
     which they cannot agree, put it on ice. . . . You must go and 
     give them a message that I said, `Don't be afraid.' ''
       Don't be afraid. Powerful words, from the author of the 
     book Freedom of Fear. ``Where people are daring to be 
     politically active, they enjoy more rights,'' she once wrote. 
     ``Where people are fearful, however, they suffer more 
     oppression. . . . If we want democracy, we need to show 
     courage. . . . By courage I mean the courage to do what one 
     knows is right, even if one is afraid.'' Powerful words not 
     only in Burma but elsewhere--here in Thailand, for example.
       Illegitimate governments rule by ``terror'', we tend to 
     say. But who feels the terror more? Surely the oppressors 
     feel it more keenly than the oppressed. ``The evildoers run 
     and hide, they hide in the shadows,'' writes exiled Haitian 
     president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, ``hoping darkness will 
     protect them and allow them to continue to commit their 
     crimes.''
       The world has learned that just inside the front door of 
     her house, Suu Kyi has posted political slogans in large 
     letters. ``You cannot use martial law as an excuse for 
     injustice,'' reads one. Asserts Aristide: ``Beware the person 
     who feels angry upon hearing the words of truth.''
       The parallel of Haiti is timely to note, since U.S. 
     President Bill Clinton gave Suu Kyl a letter through 
     congressman Bill Richardson. Clinton's recent abandonment of 
     Aristide's and Haiti's cause is shameful. Let us hope Mr. 
     Clinton's bold, courageous friend, Mr. Richardson and others 
     can prevail on him and others, such as our own government, to 
     do better by Aung San Suu Kyi.

                          ____________________