Burma's Icon Still Needs Help

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD
SENATE
May 4, 2004
BURMA'S ICON STILL NEEDS HELP
Mr. MCCONNELL. Mr. President, if my colleagues doubt that the pen is mightier than the sword, they need to take 5 minutes to read Rena Pederson's May 2 Dallas Morning News column entitled "Burma's Icon Still Needs World's Help."
When it comes to continued repression in Burma, and a largely muted world response, Ms. Pederson hits a bullseye.
She is right to demand the U.S. Congress to expeditiously renew sanctions against Burma, which I fully expect us to do over the next few weeks, and to take the United Nations to task for its weak and tepid response to the State Peace and Development Council's, SPDC, recalcitrance to implement U.N. General Assembly and Commission for Human Rights resolutions.
I share Ms. Pederson's disbelief that the U.N. Security Council has yet to bring the Burmese crisis up for debate and sanction. We already know that Burma poses an immediate and grave threat to its neighbors, whether through refugees fleeing persecution, the spread of HIV/AIDS or the proliferation of illicit narcotics.
Unfortunately, the U.N.'s misguided "wait and see" approach serves to further exacerbate a regional crisis that is a direct result of these undesirable Burmese exports and that neighboring countries, out of political expediency, refuse to face. Thailand, China, India and other regional neighbors can only bury their heads in the sand for so long.
As three Burmese were recently sentenced to death for merely talking to the International Labor Organization, a U.N. agency, one would think that the Secretary-General would have publicly and forcefully condemned these sentences as means to defend both the Burmese victims and the integrity of his own agency. It is not too late for such an expression.
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Further, Ms. Pederson's concerns with U.N. envoy Ismail Razali's business dealings with the SPDC comes at time when the corrupt "oil for food" program in Iraq is under investigation. It is only fair to ask if principles are similarly being discarded in Burma for the sake of personal profit.
I suspect that the closer we get to the May 17 constitutional convention, the louder the din from the SPDC and its advocates in Thailand will become on "progress" being made in Burma. I have little hope that the convention will serve as a catalyst for anything but an attempt by the SPDC to bestow legitimacy upon itself and its abusive rule. The director of the Burma Fund, Zaw Oo catalogued these concerns superbly in an opinion piece entitled "Don't Help Burma's Generals" in the May 6 issue of the Far Eastern Economic Review.
My message to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy could not be more clear: you are in a position of strength because of the principled stand you continue to make in support of the struggle for freedom in Burma. The people of Burma should know that America stands with them and will continue to do so until democracy and justice triumphs in Burma.
I ask unanimous consent that a copy of Ms. Pederson and Mr. Zaw Oo's articles be printed in the Record following my remarks.