BACKGROUNDER ON STRUGGLE FOR DEMOCRACY IN BURMA/MYANMAR
September 2008

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BACKGROUND ON THE SAFFRON REVOLUTION


In mid-September 2007, tens of thousands of monks spearheaded peaceful demonstrations throughout Burma.  The demonstrations, known as Saffron Revolution, were the largest scale since the 8888 Uprising in 1988.  Between 19 August and 2 October, over 200 pro-democracy protests that took place in 66 cities across Burma were documented.  The AsianCenter for the Progress of Peoples (ACPP) will not forget the efforts of the courageous people in Burma who are resisting the military regime to call for democracy.

Designated as a least developed country, 90% of the population in Burma is living on less than US$ 1 a day with over 70% of income spent on food.  On 15 August 2007, the military regime known as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) announced fuel price increase.  The fuel price which skyrocketed by 5-fold overnight led to increase in food price and transportation fare and exacerbated the economic hardship of the people.  In mid-August, a few hundred protesters, including the ’88 Generation Students, political activists, students and ordinary citizens, first started the protests, but after getting support from the monks, the protest swept through the country.

Understanding that fuel price increase was not the single incident attributed to the suffering of people in Burma, the Alliance of All Burmese Buddhist Monks (AABBM) demanded the military regime to:

• apologize for the Pakkoku incident in which monks were beaten and arrested during protest;
• reduce the fuel price;
• release all political prisoners including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi; and
• immediately enter into dialogue with democratic forces.
  

Buddhist monks in Burma are not only a spiritual figure but have also been politically active: from the independence movement to the 8888 Uprising to refusing alms from military and their family as the junta dishonored the 1990 election results, and more recently in the Saffron Revolution.  Sympathetic to the suffering of the people in August 2007, monks went on the streets chanting “Metta Sutta”, loving kindness.  “We can’t sit back and watch the people who sponsor us sink into poverty.  Their poverty is our poverty as well,” a monk said.

The monks set the deadline for the SPDC to respond to their demands by 17 September, the eve of 19^th anniversary of crackdown of the 8888 Uprising.  A new wave of demonstrations embarked as the military junta failed to meet the demands.  AABBM further issued a statement saying they would keep up their protests until they had "wiped the military dictatorship from the land of Burma" in mid-September.  On 24 September, about 20,000 monks led 100,000 people to protest in the streets of Rangoon.  Crowds also appeared in more than 25 cities in Burma.  Two days later, on 26 September, the military regime imposed curfew and crackdown began.  During the crackdown, over 3,000 people were arrested, at least 31 were killed, and at least 53 monasteries were raided.  According to Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), 700 people, including 196 monks, are still behind bars since the Saffron Revolution.  At least 50 persons were sentenced.

The SPDC responded to none of the demands of the protesters and international pressure, and kept starving and oppressing the people in the aftermath of the crackdown of the Saffron Revolution.  The fuel price remained high and inflation soared.  Even the UN Burma country chief, Charles Petrie who issued a statement on United Nations Day concerning the deteriorating humanitarian crisis in Burma, was also expelled.

The UN Human Rights Council, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and many other countries deplored the clampdown on peaceful demonstrations.  European Union, United States and Australia announced to impose tighter economic sanction to the military regime.  Notwithstanding international efforts to pressurize the regime on the political and humanitarian crisis in Burma from international community, these efforts are diluted by complicity of the big neighbors of the regime.

COMPARISION OF THE TWO REVOLUTIONS

 

8888 Uprising		Saffron Revolution
8 August – 18 September 1988	Duration	19 August – 27 September 2007
18 September 1988	Date of major crackdown	26-27 September 2007
Under Ne Win’s unique “Burmese Way to Socialism” after he seized power in 1962, Burma had become one of the most isolated and poor country in the world.  In 1987, Burma became one of the United Nations’ Least Developed Countries.	Source of discontent	Growing unease in the population due to economic distress, Burma is ranked among the 20 poorest countries in the world according to the United Nations, while many of the high ranking army generals have become immensely rich, as witnessed in the wedding video of senior general Than Shwe's daughter in late 2006.  She is shown wearing diamonds worth US$ 50 million.
In September 1987, Ne Win announced the withdrawal of the newly-replaced currency notes, 75, 35 and 25 kyats, leaving only 45 and 90 kyat notes, (because only the latter two are numbers divisible by 9, considered lucky by Ne Win), thus wiping out many people’s savings. After the announcement, students protested at the Rangoon Institute of Technology (RIT).  On 13 March 1988, a student activist, Phone Maw, was killed in front of the RIT’s main building which paved the way towards the uprising.	Events leading to uprising	On 15 August 2007 the military regime removed subsidies on fuel, causing a rapid and unannounced increase in prices. The regime, which has a monopoly on fuel sales, raised fuel price from about US$1.40 to US$2.80 a gallon, and boosted the price of natural gas by five fold.  The ripple spread to prices of other basic necessities, e.g. price of rice has hiked by 42-75%.
Students	Representative sector	Buddhist monks
Multi-party System and  Democracy	Demands	Apology to monks Decrease fuel price Release political prisoners Dialogue with opposition leaders Restore democracy
Aung San Suu Kyi	Icon	Buddhist monks
Estimate by the civil society: 3,000 civilians Official figure: a few	Casualties	According to the civil society: 138 Official figure: 10
"If we are to examine what it is that we all desire, that is what the people really want at this time, the answer is multi-party democracy. We want to get rid of the one-party system." ~ Aung San Suu Kyi	Quotation	“Wipe the military dictatorship form the land of Burma” ~ Alliance of All Burmese Buddhist Monks
Half million people attended the speech of Aung San Suu Kyi on 26 August 1998.	Participating no. of people	227 demonstrations in 66 cities were recorded during 19 August – 27 September 2007. On 24 September, 20,000 monks led 10,000 people in a demonstration in Yangon. On 27 September, up to 50,000 protesters took to the streets in Yangon before the forced crackdown.

CURRENT SITUATION - SUFFERING PERSISTS

Some Facts on Burma

In a country with abundant precious natural resources, from natural gas to gems, people in Burma should enjoy a decent standard of living.  However, life in Burma is full of economic hardship and political suppression under the military regime which only cares about its power.  The reaction of the regime in cyclone relief operations in May 2008 further exposed that their attitude to ignore the life and death of ordinary people.  The following is the current situation in Burma.

Head of the State: Than Shwe, chairman of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC)
Capital: Naypyitaw
Ethnic groups: Ethnic nationals make up around 40% of population in Burma.  There are around 135 ethnic groups officially recognized by the SPDC whereas citizenship of Rohingya is denied.  The major ethnic groups in Burma are Karen, Karenni, Shan, Mon, Chin, Kachin, Arankan and Burman.

National budget
· The SPDC spent more than 40% of its national budget in military expenditure while less than 3% was allocated to health and education.

Poverty
· Gross National Income per capita is US$ 220.
· 90% of the population is living on US$ 1 a day.
· The average household is forced to spend almost three quarters of its budget (70%) on food.  One in three children under five years of age is suffering from malnutrition, and less than 50% of children are able to complete their primary education.

Health
· Life expectancy of men and women are 57 and 63 years, respectively.
· An estimated 34% of rural population do not have access to clean water which poses threat to outbreak of respiratory and water-borne diseases.
· Around 90% of the population is threatened by malaria; tuberculosis rate is one of the highest in the world with nearly 97,000 new cases every year.
· The official figure of HIV prevalence rate for adult (15-49 years) was 1.3% at the year-end of 2005.  It is estimated that 20,000 people die of AIDS annually.

Children’s well-being
· 32% of children under five are under-weight; 10% will die before reaching five.
· It is reported that Burma has up to 70,000 child soldiers which is the highest in the world.

Political prisoners
· Currently, there are over 1,900 political prisoners in Burma according to Human Rights Council investigator for Burma Tomas Ojea Quintana.
· The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) (AAPP) stated that 700 people are still under detention after the Saffron Revolution in September 2007, including 196 Buddhist monks.
· Since November 2005, the International Committee of the Red Cross has been denied access to Burma’s prisons.

Custodial deaths
· Between July 2007 and June 2008, sixty cases of custodial death have been reported, among the cases, 16 victims are political prisoners.
· There are more than 137 political prisoners reported to have died in prison since 1988.

Internally displaced people
· Forcible displacement is one of the tactics of the SPDC army to harass the ethnic nationals in ethnic states.
· In Eastern Burma alone, over half a million ethnic nationals were forced to flee from homeland due to militarization of the army.  In last decade, more than 3,200 villages have been forcibly displaced.
· In 2007, over 80,000 Karenni people are displaced within the Karenni State.

Refugees
· There are 138,970 refugees from Karen and Karenni States seeking refuge in Thailand.
· Bangladesh is host to 220,000 Burmese Rohingya refugees, with up to 200,000 Rohingya people living outside the camps as illegal migrants.
· More than 50,000 people from Chin and Kachin States are living in northeastern states of India, where UNHCR is not allowed access.
· At least 40,000 Chin refugees from Burma are in Malaysia.

Trade
· Due to economic sanction imposed by the US and European countries, 90% of trade of Burma are with Asian countries.  Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) accounts for half of the trade with Burma.
· Thailand is the major trading partner of Burma, followed by China, Singapore and India.
· Trade of natural gas accounts for the major source of revenue to the SPDC.


Cyclone Nargis and Its Relationship with Democracy

According to the Post-Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA) report published on 21 July 2008, the cyclone Nargis of 2 and 3 May left 84,530 people dead, with a further 53,836 people still reported missing.  Other groups claim that the death toll has passed 130,000, while 12 million are displaced.

Relief operations

While millions of US dollars and humanitarian aid has been donated by the international community to help the cyclone victims, hundreds of thousands of them are still starving.  According to UN statistics, assistance only reached 1.3 million out of the 2.5 million survivors.

Local groups confirmed that the military regime has been denying the relief supplies needed by survivors and continue to prevent international humanitarian aid distribution by any means.  Many victims claim they did not receive any relief supplies and those in government camps have very limited food and were forced to sign as recipients of food. 

Relief work was delayed by the lack of access of the international aid workers, including the Red Cross, due to problems with approving entry visas.  In addition, the military regime stated that all relief groups must receive travel permission and aid distribution clearance from the local authorities so that the supplies would be handled by the military themselves “directly” to the survivors.

When visas were approved gradually, the regime soon claimed that relief stage has ended and they would move on to reconstruction and resettlement stage, although basic needs of hundreds and thousands were still not met.  Local people shared that the regime neither gave any protection nor provided safety for those who resided in affected areas.  Many were forced to go back to their villages and their destroyed homes with no water and no food.

Survivors taking shelter in the monastery were fed by monks.  Others shared that they never got any relief from the regime, but one week later they got some supplies from Christian religious groups.

Thus survivors were greatly relying on private donors for their daily sustenance.  Even these private donors have to sneak into the affected areas to provide assistance to the survivors secretly, otherwise, they would be arrested and put to jail for not informing the authorities in the area about their relief operation.

Military junta’s concerns

Amid the national disaster, where millions of people are terribly suffering and need assistance, the military junta was attentively working on the constitutional referendum for the stability of their power, instead of providing relief emergency as priority.  The national referendum pushed through on 10 May as scheduled for non-affected areas and on 24 May for the disaster-stuck areas.

Moreover, the military junta reportedly forced victims in the cyclone-affected area to vote 'yes' for the national referendum.  The Union of Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) which is a civilian wing of the dictatorship, threatened violence or to cut relief supplies to anyone who voted 'no'.  The new constitution was thus “confirmed and enacted” with 92.48% of voters endorsing the Constitution.

Information flow

Not surprisingly, Burma's censorship board, has denied permission to Rangoon based weekly journals from publishing stories on the cyclone devastation, restricting both local and foreign correspondents from going into cyclone affected zones and imposed a restriction on carrying cameras into the Irrawaddy delta.  The only information that revealed devastation of the cyclone to people outside were from stories by local journalists and foreign correspondents who have sneaked into the delta.  Weekly publications which covered stories related to the cyclone were all related to the regime’s work on reconstruction and resettlement.

Comedian and dissident, Zarganar, was arrested on 3 June after publicly criticizing the ruling generals for their sluggish response to cyclone Nargis.  He was charged with public order offences and secret police seized his computer and several banned films, including the leaked video of the lavish "champagne and diamonds" wedding of the commander-in-chief Than Shwe's daughter in 2006.

Man-made disaster

Burma’s military junta faced worldwide criticism for failing to speed up aid to survivors of cyclone Nargis and for initially barring foreign aid.International organizations urged the regime to remove restrictions on the distribution of international aid, but without much effect.

Long after the cyclone, the survivors faced difficulties from the lack of responsibility of the military regime. People died from shortage of food and drinking water, others died of dysentery, diarrhea and related diseases from eating wet and spoiled rice, which could have been prevented by regime’s intervention.

This reflects that the suffering of the people in Burma is man-made and preventable.  It is a result of the failure of the political system in the country, rather than a mere natural disaster.

 

ROLE OF INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY IN THE STRUGGLE OF DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

Apparently, local efforts and struggle of the people for change and for democracy has been demonstrated but not yet successful.  Some  factors may have allowed such to prevail:
· military power and weapons which can suppress all oppositions, are in custody of the junta;
· the junta holds all access to resources and infrastructure that are linked to the daily necessities of the people;
· absolute power of leadership, therefore no criticism is allowed;
· people have no voice over actions and decisions of the military junta – they did not choose the leader;
· the military junta finds no need to be accountable to the people: they need only distribute relief goods to show the international community of their “good work” although not really for the people;
· weak civil society movements;
· there is not enough pressure (at national and international aspect) or urge for them to change.
· As members of the international community, we have the responsibility to protect the basic rights of the people in other countries, in the event that the local government does not do its job.  We should take the role of monitoring the military regime and intervene when we see violation of international law.

Although the local situation and struggle for democracy and basic livelihood in Burma seems very pessimistic, it is not without hope.

By the fact that Burma is a member of various international organizations, such as the United Nations and the ASEAN, they carry obligations for membership.

Trading partners such as Singapore, Thailand, India and China also have great potential in persuading Burmese military junta to stop human rights violations.  A record of other major trans-national corporations in business within Burma is listed at <www.burmacampaign.org.uk/dirty_list/dirty_list.html>.  These groups have the power to directly stop the trading relationship or limit it, and with your intervention they can be prompted to take action under their power.

However, it is understood that it would be difficult for them to cooperate by giving up their interests and severing the relationship with Burma.  It needs a lot more effort and planning to persuade the trading parties directly or through personal actions.

Fortunately, there are many efforts by activists and supporters worldwide.  We hope you can find useful information and actions in the following links which you can do in your individual capacity and promote them to your friends, as we all have a role to play in the struggle for democracy with the people in Burma.

USEFUL LINKS FOR ACTION

The Burma Campaign UK: part of a global movement campaigning for human rights and democracy in Burma, with the aim to increase economic pressure on the regime by discouraging investment and tourism.  They also lobby the UK government and the European Union to increase political pressure on the regime.  Their dirty list below will be helpful for concerned individual who want to be part of the pressure group against the Burmese military junta.
http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/dirty_list/dirty_list.html

Burma Issues: a non-profit organization, made up of young ethnic people from Eastern Burma who now dedicate their lives to educating and empowering the grassroots communities in Eastern Burma, documenting human rights abuses and acting as a bridge between the grassroots communities and the international community.  Their newsletters provide personal and insightful accounts on the sentiments and views of the people from inside.
http://www.burmaissues.org/En/Index.html

Burma Campaign Australia: the web site hosts comprehensive information and action on Burma.
http://www.aucampaignforburma.org/index.htm

ALTSEAN-Burma (Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma): a regional network of organizations and individuals based in ASEAN member states working to support the movement for human rights and democracy in Burma.  They engage in advocacy, campaigns, capacity building and work with the democracy movement and its supporters to produce resources and create opportunities for building and strengthening strategic relationship among key network and organizations and the international community.
http://www.altsean.org/index.php

Other Actions on Burma

Urgent Appeals
Hotline Asia Urgent Appeals - UA080807(5): Commemorate 8888 Uprising, Demand a Democratic Government
http://www.acpp.org/uappeals/2008/08080705.htm

Hotline Asia Urgent Appeal - SUA070928(3): Release Peaceful Protestors, Respect Freedom Of Expression & Association
http://www.acpp.org/uappeals/2007/070928s3.html

Hotline Asia Urgent Appeals - UA980126(1): Environmental Destruction and Human Rights Abuse to Build the Yadana Gas Pipeline
http://www.acpp.org/uappeals/1998/98012601.html

Solidarity Network
Burma Partnership is a movement of organizations and individuals that aims to develop a strong broad-based partnership of peoples of the Asia-Pacific advocating and mobilizing a movement for promoting freedom, democracy and human rights in Burma.
http://www.apppb.blogspot.com

Burma Global Action Network
http://www.burma-network.com/index.php
(also in Facebook)

Online Media

The Irrawaddy
http://www.irrawaddy.org

Mizzima News
http://www.mizzima.com

Sources:
AFP
Altsean-Burma
Asia News
Asia Pacific People’s Partnership on Burma (APPPB)
BBC News
Burma Campaign UK
Burma Issues
Democratic Voice of Burma
Human Rights Watch
Irrawaddy
Refugees International
Reuters
SCMP
US Campaign for Burma
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Wikipedia

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