The Problem Of A Tangible Outcome In Myanmar

You may remember that the problems in the country of Myanmar were in the headline news several months ago. The country's military junta was attracting dubious daily publicity for killing innocent monks protesting the intolerable conditions in the country. The United Nations quickly responded to the events in Myanmar by appointing a "special envoy", Ibrahim Gambarito as a liaison to improve the situation. After his last meeting with the military junta in Myanmar, Gambarito now states: “Whereas each of my previous visits produced some tangible result that could be built upon, it is a source of disappointment that this latest visit did not yield any immediate tangible outcome".

It should not surprise anyone that there is no "immediate tangible outcome". There has not been any “tangible outcome” in Myanmar for the United Nations in the last seventeen years. Consider that in every year since the overthrow of the democratically elected government in 1991, the United Nations has issued Resolutions concerning the problems in Myanmar. These Resolutions have been ignored by the country's ruling military junta. The truth is that the United Nations can certainly produce an impressive pile of paper full of Resolutions, but it is historically lacking in the production of many tangible outcomes, immediate or otherwise.

As the years go by, the sad situation in Myanmar continues and the country appears to be a helpless victim, frozen in a dubious place in time. In 2005, former Czech Republic President Vaclav Havel and South Africa's retired Bishop Desmond M. Tutu, wrote a report for United Nations Security Council. The report outlined in detail the myriad of problems in the country of Myanmar. The report shows that behavior of the ruling military Junta as a member country of the United Nations is in direct conflict with the U.N. Charter. It was a report that 14 years after the overthrow of legitimate democratic rule, indirectly highlights the United Nations total failure in changing the political and human rights conditions in the country.

The 2005 Havel/Tutu report was a complete indictment of the most brutal military dictatorship in the world today. The military kidnaps male children at an early age and trains them in the use of weapons by age eleven. It is estimated that nearly 70,000 children have been forced to join the military in this manner. The country is the world's leading producer of heroin and is heavily involved in drug trafficking.

In addition to the drugs and rampant child abuse, thousands of villages have been systematically destroyed by the military in the last ten years. Over 200,000 refugees have fled the country to escape the brutality of the regime. Of course, there are no basic human rights, healthcare, education, political rights or free speech. Atrocities are common with murder, rape, and forced labor common. In addition, HIV aids is a major problem in the country as well. In effect, the military's corrupt ruling junta, now lead by Gen. Khin Nyunt, has succeeded in making Myanmar one of the poorest countries in the world.

The fact is that these deplorable conditions in Myanmar could be so different. The road to this sad place for the country was created seventeen years ago. Myanmar (called Burma until the military junta changed its name in 1991) held a democratic election and the opposition party to the military won eighty two percent of the vote. An articulate women with Burmese heritage by the name of Aung San Suu Kyi led the victorious opposition party. Stunned by their defeat, the military arrested everyone in the opposition party including Suu Kyi and voided the election. Since 1991 Suu Kyi has been held under house arrest much of the time while the country has been run under military rule.

In the last seventeen years, there have been many diplomatic conversations and Resolutions from the United Nations to the government of Myanmar concerning the overthrow of the democratically elected regime and the dismal conditions in the country. All the Resolutions, diplomacy, and talk have produced very little result. However, through the years, Aung San Suu Kyi has gained international fame and recognition for her articulate non-violent opposition to the illegitimate ruling military government in the country. In 1991, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her non-violent resistance to the military governments rule. To this day, she remains the world’s only imprisoned Nobel Laureate.

Peaceful resistance against injustice and tyranny have had some celebrated champions. Mahatma Ghandi of India, the Dalai Lama of Tibet, and Martin Luther King in the United States, are a few that immediately come to mind. However, in Myanmar there is a Nobel Laureate that has championed non violent, resistance against the world’s most brutal military regime for now more than seventeen years. As we have seen from history, passive resistance requires bravery, persistence, time, and patience. Surely this women's legacy now more than compares to the most celebrated world figures of peaceful resistance against injustice of the past.

Aung San Suu Kyi, continues to wait under house arrest in Myanmar. She waits for the day when a democratic election will provide civilian rule for the country once again. Unfortunately, it looks like her long wait is not nearly over. In the recent words of United Nations special envoy to Myanmar, Ibrahim Gambarito: there is no “immediate tangible outcome.” Of course, the lack of progress in the resolution of the political problems in Myanmar represents a real issue concerning the credibility and effectiveness of the United Nations. The sad truth is that despite all the U.N. Resolutions, Security Council Reports and diplomatic discussions, there has not been any tangible outcome for the country of Myanmar now for each of the last seventeen years.

(For more on Myanmar see :"In Myanmar, Its Not Power That Corrupts But Fear" on eWorldvu.com)

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