[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 123 (Wednesday, September 27, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Page S10276]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 BURMA

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I wish to mark an important milestone: 
the 18th anniversary of the founding of the Burmese National League for 
Democracy, NLD. As the world knows well, the NLD is the legitimate 
leadership of the country of Burma, as the party was elected 
overwhelmingly by the Burmese people in 1990.
  Sadly, the 18th anniversary for the NLD is not a time for rejoicing. 
The NLD remains firmly under the boot of the Burmese ruling junta, the 
State Peace and Development Council, SPDC. Many of its leaders are 
imprisoned, including Nobel Laureate and democracy advocate Daw Aung 
San Suu Kyi, and NLD vice chairman, U Tin Oo. Thirteen elected NLD 
members of Parliament and over 400 party members currently serve in 
prison. Other NLD members have endured torture and have been killed as 
the SPDC continues to wage a campaign of harassment, intimidation--and 
worse--against party members and supporters.
  In a testament to the courage and determination of its leadership, 
and despite these great hardships, the NLD remains unbowed. It 
continues to pursue nonviolent political change in Burma. I am proud to 
say that the Senate stands squarely alongside the NLD in its efforts. I 
am hopeful that the United Nations, U.N., Security Council will as 
well. Due to the determined efforts of many countries, including the 
United States, Burma is slated to be on the Council's agenda for the 
first time ever. It will then be time for member states to stand up and 
be counted in support of a nonpunitive resolution on Burma.
  It should be noted that U.N. Under Secretary General Ibrahim 
Gambari's trip to Rangoon earlier this year was a complete failure. Mr. 
Gambari should not make a second trip to Burma unless and until the 
U.N. Security Council has considered and passed a resolution that, 
among other things, details the threats the SPDC poses to the people of 
Burma and the entire region. Such action would be a clear message to 
the SPDC that when it comes to Burma, the world is not satisfied with 
the status quo.
  Similarly, I would encourage all relevant bureaus at the State 
Department and the National Security Council--particularly those 
relating to African affairs--to remain engaged and focused on this 
issue. The task of promoting democracy and reconciliation in Burma 
should not be left only to the East Asian and Pacific Affairs and the 
Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor bureaus at the State Department. 
With three African nations currently sitting on the U.N. Security 
Council, our African affairs specialists need to more actively engage 
in building support for such a resolution. Ghana has already 
demonstrated its solidarity with the cause of freedom. The Republic of 
Congo and Tanzania need to follow suit.
  Finally, on this, the 18th anniversary of the founding of NLD, I call 
upon the Burmese military regime to release Suu Kyi and all political 
prisoners. Only then can discussions on a meaningful reconciliation 
process--one that includes the full and unfettered participation of the 
NLD and ethnic minorities--proceed.
  I ask unanimous consent that a Boston Globe Editorial on Burma be 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                [From the Boston Globe, Sept. 26, 2006]

                          An Agenda for Burma

       Having placed the case of Burma's military junta on the 
     formal agenda of the Security Council earlier this month, the 
     United Nations now has an opportunity to show that it can be 
     something more than an impatient debating club. If in the 
     waning days of his tenure UN Secretary General Kofi Annan 
     exercises the right combination of firmness and finesse with 
     Burma's military dictators, he can help protect human rights, 
     democracy, and regional security in Asia.
       Unlike the coercive measures contemplated to cope with 
     Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons or genocide in Darfur, the 
     UN is not being asked to dispatch armed peacekeepers to Burma 
     to impose risky economic sanctions on the narco-dictatorship 
     there. Rather, moral suasian and diplomatic pressure are the 
     means for dealing with the junta's violations of human rights 
     and its threats to regional peace and security--threats 
     manifest in the export of heroin, methamphetamine, HIV/AIDS, 
     and the hundreds of thousands of refugees who have fled the 
     military's brutal assaults on ethnic minorities.
       Annan must be careful, however, in the way he exerts the 
     UN's soft power. Last May, he sent UN undersecretary-general 
     for political affairs, Ibrahim Gambari, to Burma, where he 
     met with Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi as well as 
     junta leaders. At the time, Gambari said he thought the junta 
     bosses were ``ready to turn a new page.'' But Gambari and 
     Annan looked gullible soon after, when the junta extended Suu 
     Kyi's house arrest for another year and intensified its 
     campaign of ethnic cleansing, rape, and murder in the region 
     inhabited by 2 million people of the Karen ethnic group.
       Annan shouldn't allow Gambari to undertake a return trip to 
     Burma without a Security Council resolution that spells out 
     clear and reasonable demands for the true turning of a new 
     page. That should include the release of all 1,100 political 
     prisoners in Burma, including Suu Kyi and fellow leaders of 
     the National League for Democracy, the party that won 82 
     percent of Parliamentary seats in a 1990 election that the 
     junta has refused to honor ever since.
       The NLD, which commemorates the anniversary of its 1988 
     founding on Sept. 27, must be invited along with other 
     parties and representatives of Burma's ethnic nationalities 
     to participate in a genuine political dialogue. The 
     resolution Gambari takes to Burma should specify that such a 
     dialogue means working out terms for an agreement on a return 
     to democracy. That resolution should also require the junta 
     to end its attacks on ethnic minorities and to permit 
     international aid organizations to have unimpeded access to 
     all those in need within Burma. Nearly all the people of 
     Burma need the world's help.

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