[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 106 (Monday, July 26, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9198-S9199]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   STOP WORSENING REPRESSION IN BURMA

  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, I want to speak today on the 
distressing human rights situation in Burma. The Association of 
Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN, held their Annual Ministerial Meeting 
in Singapore this weekend. And this week Secretary Albright will be in 
Singapore for the ASEAN regional forum and the Post-Ministerial 
Conference. It is essential that during all of these meetings serious 
attention is focused on the worsening human rights situation in Burma.
  We haven't heard much about Burma in the media recently. There have 
been no major news events in Burma recently to grab the attention of 
the world: No Tiananmen Square scale massacres, no Kosovo scale 
dislocations, no bloody street clashes like we've seen in East Timor or 
Iran. But in Burma today something equally chilling is proceeding, out 
of the world's view: A slow, systematic strangling of the democratic 
opposition. Since last fall, the ruling military regime has detained, 
threatened and tortured opposition party members in increasing numbers. 
At least 150 senior members of the opposition National League for 
Democracy are being held in government detention centers. 3,000 
political prisoners are held in Rangoon's notorious Insein prison. The 
regime has forced or coerced nearly 40,000 others to resign from the 
opposition party in recent months. In a videotape smuggled out of Burma 
in April and delivered to the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva, 
the leader of the National League for Democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi, said 
government repression had worsened greatly in the past year on a scale 
``the world has not yet grasped.'' She said on the tape: ``What we have 
suffered over the last year is far more than we have suffered over the 
last six or seven years.'' According to one Western official, the 
regime intends to do nothing less than eradicate the opposition ``once 
and for all.''
  Mr. President, most of this repression takes place quietly, through 
intimidation, arrests at night and other activities out of the public 
eye. The Burmese regime carefully controls access to the country for 
journalists. So we have no video footage of the repression and only 
scant reporting from a few brave journalists and human rights workers. 
But just because we cannot see what is going on in Burma does not mean 
we can ignore it. It is all the more important for us to speak about 
the situation there and show our support for the forces of democracy 
and human rights.

  In July 1997, when Burma became a full ASEAN member, ASEAN countries 
claimed that such a move would encourage the regime--the so-called 
State Peace and Development Council, or SPDC, to improve its human 
rights record. In fact the opposite has been true. As the Washington 
Post put it in a recent editorial: ``ASEAN's logic was familiar: 
Engagement with the outside world would persuade Burma's dictators to 
relax their repressive rule. The verdict on this test case of the 
engagment theory thus far is clear: The behavior of the thugs who run 
Burma has worsened, and so has life for most Burmese.''
  Not only has the SPDC stepped up its repression of the opposition 
party, the National League for Democracy, it has intensified its 
campaign of oppression against the country's ethnic minoriites. The 
regime has increased forcible relocation programs in the Karen, 
Karenni, and Shan States. The use of forced labor in all seven ethnic 
minority states continues at a high level, and forced portering occurs 
wherever there are counter-insurgency activities.
  Amnesty International has just issued three new reports which 
describe in compelling detail the harsh, relentless mistreatment of 
farmers and other civilians of ethnic minority groups in rural areas. 
Let me read a few brief passages from these excellent, detailed 
reports:
  In February 1999, Amnesty International interviewed recently arrived 
Shan refugees in Thailand in order to obtain an update on the human 
rights situation in the central Shan State. The pattern of violations 
has remained the same, including forced labor and portering, 
extrajudicial killings, and ill-treatment of villagers. Troops also 
routinely stole villagers' rice supplies, cattle, and gold, using them 
to sell or to feed themselves. According to reports, Army officers do 
not provide their troops with adequate supplies so troops in effect 
live off the villagers. One 33 year-old farmer from Murngnai township 
described the relationship between the Shan people and the army:

       Before, I learned that the armed forces are supposed to 
     protect people, but they are repressing people. If you can't 
     give them everything they want, they consider you as their 
     enemy . . . it is illogical, the army is forcing the people 
     to protect them, instead of vice-versa.

  Amnesty International also reports similar abuses in Karen state:
  Karen refugees interviewed in Thailand cited several reasons for 
leaving their homes: Some had previously been forced out of their 
villages by the Burmese army and had been hiding in the forest. They 
feared being shot on sight by the military because they occupied 
``black areas'' where the insurgents were allegedly active. Many others 
fled directly from their home villages in the face of village burnings, 
constant demands for forced labor, looting of food and supplies, and 
extrajudicial killings at the hands of the military.
  These human rights violations took place in the context of widespread 
counter-insurgency activities against the Karen National Union (KNU) 
one of the last remaining armed ethnic minority opposition groups still 
fighting the military government. Guerilla fighting between the two 
groups continues, but the primary victims are Karen civilians. 
Civilians are at risk of torture and extrajudicial executions by the 
military, who appear to automatically assume that they supported or 
were even members of the KNU. Civilians also became sitting targets for 
constant demands by the army for forced labor or portering duties. As 
one Karen refugee explained to Amnesty International, ``Even though we 
are civilians, the military treats us like their enemy.''
  A similar situation exists in Karenni State. Three-quarters of the 
dozens of Karenni refugees interviewed by Amnesty International in 
February 1999 were forced by the military to work as unpaid laborers. 
They were in effect an unwilling pool of laborers which the military 
drew from to work in military bases, build roads, and clear land. When 
asked why they decided to flee to Thailand, many refugees said that 
forced labor duties made it impossible for them to survive and do work 
to support themselves. Several of them also mentioned that forced labor 
demands had increased during 1998.
  Unpaid forced labor is in contravention of the International Labor 
Organization's (ILO) Convention No. 29, which the government of Burma 
signed in 1955. The ILO has repeatedly raised the issue with the 
government and in June 1996 took the rare step of appointing a 
Commission of Inquiry. In August 1998 the Commission published a 
comprehensive report, which found the government of Burma ``. . . 
guilty of an international crime that is also, if committed in a 
widespread or systematic manner, a crime against humanity.''
  Mr. President, I am under no illusion that the military regime in 
Burma will reform overnight and end its human rights abuses. But I 
think it is critically important that we keep the

[[Page S9199]]

world's attention focused on the terrible repression of democracy and 
abuse of ethnic minorities going on there. I hope our message of 
concern, backed by the invaluable reporting done by Amnesty 
International, will get through somehow to the Burmese people and to 
their courageous leader, Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
  ASEAN member countries are gathering in Singapore currently for a 
series of meetings. We need to encourage them to develop a new strategy 
for dealing with the SPDC's intransigence regarding human rights. Now 
that criticism of fellow ASEAN members is no longer completely taboo, I 
hope some of the ASEAN countries that have improved their own human 
rights records will take the initiative to prod the Burmese to move in 
the right direction. The ASEAN regional forum (ARF), which deals with 
Asian security issues, will meet at the same time and should address 
this as a security problem. Western nations, including the U.S., who 
will also be present at the ARF should work closely with all concerned 
countries to encourage the SPDC to improve its human rights record.
  Even if we don't see quick improvement, those of us who care deeply 
about human rights have a duty to keep the plight of the Burmese people 
before the world community. I am committed to doing that, and I hope my 
colleagues will join me in pressing the Burmese regime for real, 
measurable improvements in these areas.

                          ____________________