Elisa Burchett: Group of Nobel Peace Prize Winners Wields Moral Weight in Burma/Myanmar

2008-02-20 | Nine icons of peace have signed a statement calling for the U.N. Security Council to place an arms embargo and banking sanctions targeting those banks connected to arms trade in Burma/Myanmar. The agreement, signed by a veritable Who's Who of Peace - Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Shirin Ebadi, Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Mairead Maguire, Rigoberta Menchu Tum, Professor Elie Wiesel, Betty Williams and Jody Williams - lends moral weight to a heretofore ineffective political action in the effort to protect the human and civil rights of the people of Burma. Many of the arms used by Burma's military regime - and used to repress the civil rights of the people - have been obtained through foreign governments and the group of Nobel Peace Prize winners is saying this is unacceptable, on the grounds that no nation should sell arms to a regime that uses weapons exclusively against its own people. They have gone, now, to the U.N. Security Council to appeal to the international community to take quick action to create measures to stop the sale of arms to the Burmese military, including a ban on banking transactions, targeting top Burmese leaders, state, and private entities that support the government's weapons trade. What is equally impressive is the nine Nobel Peace Prize winners' unified statement in support of fellow Nobel Prize Peace winner, Aung San Suu Kyi, calling yet again for her release, along with that of Buddhist monks and all political prisoners in Burma. "We can not, and will not, forget the events of the Saffron Revolution and the courage of the Burmese people in asserting their right to live in peace and freedom. Despite decades of repression and in a world wracked by violence, their peaceful demonstrations represent a model for the proper and rightful expression of political dissent of which they are entitled", the prize winners affirmed. Not long ago, in 2006, Burma was voted onto the permanent U.N. Security Council Agenda for the first time in history and by the end of 2007, the Security Council issued its first-ever Presidential Statement on Burma, calling on Burma's military regime to create the necessary conditions for an inclusive national reconciliation i.e., talks with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and all ethnic groups and the United Nations offered direct support to that end. Since then, Burma's military regime has failed to release political prisoners and blatantly ignored calls for open and inclusive participation in the political process by going ahead with a vote on a new constitution written by delegates of the military regime. A comparison was made between Burma's military regime and Apartheid South Africa’s Sharpeville Massacre and Soweto Uprising. The Nobel Peace advocates reminded the international community of the U.N. Security Council's imposition of an arms embargo in that case. Archbishop Desmond Tutu said, "Now it is time for the U.N. and individual countries to immediately impose arms embargoes and targeted banking sanctions on Burma following the Saffron Massacre. The election promised by the military regime of Burma is a complete sham." Demands from within Burma for change (a rejection of the referendum of the military regime and calls for an arms embargo and bank sanctions) comes from the Democracy movement in Burma, the 88 generation Students and the All Burma Monks Alliance. The arms sales monitoring organization, The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, reports China as the leading supplier of arms to Burma's military regime along with the Ukraine, Poland, India and Russia. Unless and until action is taken to bring Burma's military regime face to face with the implications of its denial of the rights of the people of Burma, innocent people will remain imprisoned physically and spiritually. Elisa Burchett UNHQ Bureau Chief U.N. OBSERVER & International Report Body of U.N. Staff Member Found on North Lawn The body of a 44 year old U.N. staff member and Austrian Consulate worker, Maria DiBiase, was found on the North Lawn of the United Nations complex on Sunday morning. Ms DiBiase, who worked in the U.N. Secretariat building appears to have jumped from the 19th floor after arriving for work early Sunday morning, sources say. Ms DiBiase worked for the International Computing Center (part of the World Health Organization based in Geneva, Switzerland) providing computing services to U.N. agencies. Her body was discovered by U.N. staffers around 8:00 am. At this time their is no suspicion of foul play and an investigation into the cause of her death is ongoing. Elisa Burchett UNHQ Bureau Chief U.N. OBSERVER & International Report