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Exiled Burma leadership successfully meet in Jakarta
Radio Australia - August 14, 2009
A delegation of exiled Burmese democracy leaders has successfully concluded a meeting in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, where they launched an alternative plan for Burma's transition to democracy. Whilst the group may have resisted efforts by the Indonesian government to shut their meeting down, they are still a long way from convincing the Burmese leadership to yield to their demands.
Presenter: Katie Hamann in Jakarta
Speaker: Khin Omar, Vice-Chair of the Burmese Women's Union; Dr Jason Abbott, Southeast Asian political expert at Britain's University of Surrey; Dr Sein Win, Burma's so-called Prime Minister-in-exile
Hamann: Officially launched in Jakarta this week by a broad coalition of Burmese leaders in exile, pro-democracy and ethnic groups, the 'Proposal for National Reconciliation' calls upon Burma's military regime to release all political prisoners, declare a nationwide ceasefire with rebel groups and amend the 2008 constitution.
Khin Omar, Vice-Chair of the Burmese Women's Union says these demands must be met and a dialogue begun before next year's elections.
Omar: When you ask will we actually boycott this coming election, yes, we may not have any other choice left for us, but only to boycott, if the conditions move on like this; continuing hostility against the ethnic population, no release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and political prisoners and all the democratic elements and institutions in the country are completely sidelined. Do we have another choice?
Hamann: On the subject of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's latest sentence the delegation was also unyielding, dismissing suggestions that the ruling junta's decision to reduce the sentence to home detention was a sign that they are open to negotiations. This was how Dr Jason Abbott, a Southeast Asian political expert at Britain's University of Surrey, interpreted Tuesday's post-verdict theatrics.
Abbott: The fact that they commuted it and they also invited foreign media and western diplomats into the courtroom so that they would be present when the verdict was commuted seemed to suggest a willingness to engage in some sort of compromise.
Hamann: Burma's so-called Prime Minister-in-exile, Dr Sein Win says without the presence of Ms Suu Kyi there can be no negotiations with the junta.
Win: You know Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has played a key role and some people would like to say she is part of the problem, no she is the solution of the problem.
Hamann: Is there anyway that you would accept her being excluded from a dialogue?
Win: No, no way. She is a leader of a party that won the 1990 elections, we should not forget that.
Hamann: And it's on this point in particular that Dr Abbott says there must be compromise before any real progress can be made.
Abbott: The opposition is being as stubborn as the junta and until we get movement were not going to see progress, it's as simple as that. The junta is not going to move. It's clear that sanctions, which have been in place to varying degrees over the last twenty years, have not shifted the junta, nor has constructive engagement. As long as this continues we face the real prospect of another decade of no progress, of substantive progress, and that's the great tragedy of the situation we now face. And the only losers are ordinary Burmese who have to suffer and endure this in the country.
Hamann: The exiled leaders also urged the United Nations Security Council to draft a binding resolution on Burma and for partners at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to exert more pressure on the regime. Yesterday, the European Union announced an extension of its sanctions on Burma, imposing travel bans and asset freezes on members of the nation's judiciary responsible for handing down this week's guilty verdict in the trial of Ms Suu Kyi.
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