06 March 2008
Burmese Repression Has Cross-border Impact, Activist Says
Conference under way to raise awareness of danger for other Asian countries
Washington -- The human rights situation in Burma is having negative economic and security effects beyond the country's borders, and Burma's neighbors should consider the interests of their own citizens and promote genuine reforms in the country, a Malaysian human rights activist says.
Debbie Stothard, who is coordinator of the Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma (ALTSEAN-Burma), is attending a three-day international conference in Jakarta, Indonesia, focused on how civil society can support human rights and democracy in Burma. She spoke with America.gov on March 5 prior to her remarks at the conference.
"The evidence is clear that this so-called internal affair [in Burma] is no longer internal. It has serious cross-border impacts," she said.
The human rights abuses by Burma's military leaders have swelled the numbers of Burmese refugees in neighboring countries, especially Thailand, and displaced 1 million people still remaining inside Burma, she said. The fact that as many as 2 million migrants are undocumented and are not acknowledged as Burmese citizens by the regime has left a large population that is essentially stateless and unprotected, and therefore easily exploited by transnational criminals such as human traffickers and drug cartels.
"When you have that sort of a problem then it's definitely going to affect the entire region," Stothard said. "In fact, if you look at the figures, [the areas with] the highest rates of HIV infections and drug addition in China and in India correspond to their borders with Burma."
She added that the situation has been compounded by the Burmese regime's willingness to allow drug traffickers and cartels to flourish and that until recently the Burmese government even allowed known narcotics criminals to own banks.
"That's very clear evidence that any country that is neighboring Burma should be extremely concerned about what's going on in the country, because even if you didn't care what happens to the Burmese they should at least care about how their own citizens are affected by this military regime's misrule," she said.
HEALTH RISKS
The large concentration of people who have been forced into poor living conditions also adds to the risk of communicable diseases besides HIV, she said. Those living in Burma's border regions have suffered as a result of the regime's diversion of the country's wealth towards its military and away from basic health services, raising the potential for cross-border epidemics.
"Bacteria and viruses, they don't need visas to travel," Stothard said. "We could have very serious epidemics before you know it. That's why outbreaks of bird flu, of drug resistant [tuberculosis], and drug resistant strains of malaria are a big cause of concern in the region."
Stothard's nongovernmental organization, ALTSEAN-Burma, which she co-founded in 1996, is focused on promoting democracy and human rights in Burma and Southeast Asia. The organization recently has been improving the capacity for grassroots activists to use economics and security arguments to defend and promote human rights in the region.
A NATIONAL PROBLEM WITH REGIONAL IMPACT
Her remarks at the conference are meant to help the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Burma's neighbors understand that they themselves are at risk due to the situation in the country.
Conference host Indonesia is currently on the U.N. Security Council and "should have the empowerment to actually do something about Burma at … that level," Stothard pointed out.
"This is a very clear case where human rights abuses and democratic rights have very serious economic and security impacts on the entire region," she said. "ASEAN and the neighboring countries of Burma are fully within their right to act in their own interest to see that genuine reforms happen in Burma." She added that failure to do so would be "incredibly irresponsible" to their own citizens.
Burma's military rulers are committing these abuses because they feel confident that ASEAN and their neighbors "are not going to do anything serious to stop it" from perpetuating the current situation, Stothard said.
"This is why we need a conference like this -- to make people aware that something must be done now or else the situation will get further out of control," she said. The conference includes legislators, health experts, Burmese academics and the Burmese monk U Awbata, who witnessed the regime's brutal September 2007 crackdown against pro-democracy activists before being driven into exile.
"So there is much interest and a very diverse range of expertise that's been brought into the conference. We're looking to have lively discussions and interesting … creative strategies," she said.
