[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 167 (Wednesday, December 5, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12460-S12461]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       MILITARY BUILD-UP IN BURMA

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, the Senate Appropriations Committee 
yesterday marked-up H.R. 3338, the FY 2002 Department of Defense 
Appropriations Bill. I authored language in the report accompanying 
that bill requiring the Pentagon to report to Congress on Thailand's 
defense needs in the wake of Burma's recent purchase of 10 MiG-29 
fighter aircraft from Russia. I did so because of my grave concerns 
with regional security and stability--and with the welfare of the 
people of Burma who endure hardships and indignities under the 
oppressive misrule of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). 
In terms of oppressive regimes, the SPDC ranks right up there with the 
Taliban.
  My colleagues should take note of the November 28 edition of Jane's 
Defence Weekly which states that Burma has ``significantly expanded the 
country's military strength while most other [countries] in the region 
are pursuing force reductions . . . military modernization since 1988 
has been heavily tied to China as the principal source of equipment--
variously valued at between $1 billion and $2 billion. [The purchase of 
the MiGs from Russia] following up its 1996 purchase of Mi-17 
helicopters, suggests that a new dimension could dominate the next 
phase of development . . . [the SPDC] has stated publicly that armed 
forces strength has been targeted to expand by a further 25 percent, to 
500,000.''
  Lest my colleagues fail to understand what is happening in Rangoon 
today, let me sketch a quick outline:
  The legitimately elected leader of Burma--Daw Aung San Suu Kyi of the 
National League for Democracy (NLD)--continues to be under house arrest 
in Rangoon, with up to 1,800 political prisoners languishing in Burmese 
prisons. While SPDC thugs and Suu Kyi are engaged in ``talks'', the 
junta is building up its military strength and purchasing billions of 
dollars of military hardware from Russia and China. To say that the 
defense build-up sends conflicting messages to the NLD and the world is 
a gross understatement.
  Meanwhile, the people of Burma suffer from neglect and abuse at the 
hands of the SPDC who attached absolutely no importance to the welfare 
of Burmese citizens. None. And to make matters worse, Japan appears to 
be rewarding the SPDC by providing a grant aid to Burma for the repair 
of the Baluchaung Hydroelectric Power Plant in Karenni State. The 
Japanese government must understand that such assistance is not only 
premature, it is also misguided. Money is certainly the language of the 
thugs and thieves in Burma, but it cannot buy peace and stability in 
that mafia state.
  I encourage my colleagues to read Fred Hiatt's excellent op-ed in 
Monday's edition of the Washington Post, and ask that it appear in the 
Record following my remarks.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                [From the Washington Post, Dec. 3, 2001]

                             Eyes Wide Open

                            (By Fred Hiatt)

       One inevitable reaction, as we hear now of the depredations 
     of the Taliban regime, is: Where were we all while this was 
     going on?
       Oh, some feminists and human rights activists tried to call 
     our attention to Afghanistan's gender apartheid. Journalists, 
     including The Post's Pam Constable, reported from Kabul. We 
     took note briefly when religious minorities were ordered to 
     wear identifying marks and when those ancient statues were 
     destroyed.
       But for most of us, the recent revelations of Taliban 
     brutality--of forced conscription, point-blank murder, 
     scorched-earth destruction and merciless impoverishment of 
     widows and children--have been just that, revelations. As the 
     Bush administration rails righteously against a regime it 
     barely seemed to notice before Sept. 11, we have to ask: 
     Where were they--where were we--these five long years? How 
     could we have let it happen?
       One way to answer the question is to look at places where 
     it is happening still.
       This week past Nobel Peace Prize winners will gather in 
     Oslo to honor one missing laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the 
     rightful leader of the Southeast Asian nation of Burma, 
     wasn't allowed to pick up her prize in 1991, and a decade 
     later she remains under house arrest and cut off from the 
     world. Her countrymen--some 48 million of them, more or less 
     double Afghanistan's population--are preyed upon by their 
     leaders much as Afghans were by theirs.
       The facts are depressingly familiar to the relatively few 
     who follow events in Burma (renamed Myanmar by the junta). A 
     promising, resource-rich nation with a well-educated and 
     peaceable population has been ground gradually toward poverty 
     and ignorance by a succession of malevolent and misguided 
     rulers.
       In 1990 the ruling junta, apparently deluded about its 
     popularity, as dictators frequently are, staged elections. 
     The National League for Democracy, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, 
     won four out of every five parliamentary seats, even though 
     she was already under house arrest. Instead of letting the 
     parliament meet, the generals put many of the winners in 
     jail, where some remain to this day.
       Among juntas, Burma's is particularly famous for its use of 
     forced unpaid labor. As many as 1 million Burmese, by the 
     estimate of the International Confederation of Free Trade 
     Unions, have been press-ganged into building roads, railroads 
     and military installations. Many of the conscripted are 
     children. Many are forced to act as porters for the army, 
     often in dangerous circumstances.
       The generals, fearing the people they rule, maintain an 
     army of 400,000. They have shuttered the country's 
     universities for most of the past decade. People are jailed 
     for possession of unlicensed fax machines. Media are 
     controlled by the state. Some 1,500 people

[[Page S12461]]

     are in prison for political crimes, mostly for having sought 
     to peacefully express opinions of which the regime did not 
     approve. In a country where one in three children is 
     malnourished, the generals recently agreed to buy from Russia 
     a dozen advanced MiG-29 fighter jets.
       The combined effect of repression and the military's 
     incompetence is ever-worsening poverty. In the past year, the 
     local currency has lost half its value. The only export on an 
     upward curve is heroin. Vast acreages of rain forest have 
     been destroyed to feed the generals' corruption. Just in the 
     past two months, the BBC recently reported, food prices have 
     doubled, and power outages have become routine. HIV-AIDS is 
     spreading fast.
       Despite democracy's advances around the world in recent 
     years, the Burmese assuredly are not the only people still 
     enchained. North Koreans, Chinese, Belarusians, Iraqis, 
     Cubans--all are denied their freedoms, yet none is about to 
     be liberated by U.S. bombing. There's a limit to what we can 
     do, and what we should do.
       Yet in all of those places the United States can and should 
     press for freedom. In Burma, economic sanctions are beginning 
     to have some effect. Concerned about their image and the 
     economy, the generals have released some 200 political 
     prisoners and at least entertained the efforts of a U.N. 
     envoy, now on his sixth trip to the nation. If other 
     countries remain steadfast in supporting Aung San Suu Kyi--
     refusing to provide aid, for example, except in consultation 
     with her--there's some hope for more progress.
       Burma, after all, would require no nation-building, no Bonn 
     conferences, no search for a viable opposition. A qualified 
     and democratically elected leader waits quietly in her 
     lakefront Rangoon house, still committed after a decade to 
     human rights and nonviolent change. When she finally moves to 
     the prime minister's office that belongs to her, and the 
     Burmese people cheer their liberation as many Afghans have 
     been cheering theirs, it would be nice if we could say at 
     least: We're not surprised. We knew that terrible things were 
     happening. We were with you all along.

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