Ett upprop till mina parlamentarikerkollegor i Sverige, Europa och världen.
Nedan har Du som är parlamentariker möjlighet att göra en insats.
Gör som jag- underteckna uppropet om Burma inför Aung San Suu Kyis födelsedag den 19 juni. Uppropet ska överlämnas till till Kofi Annan/FN.
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To United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and members of the United Nations Security Council.
As elected members of parliament and congress from over XX countries, we are writing to respectfully urge you to put the situation in Burma on the formal agenda of the United Nations Security Council and to pass a binding resolution requiring the restoration of democracy to Burma. We warmly welcome the first United Nations Security Council briefing, held in December 2005, on the situation in
Burma. However, the briefing was only a first step, and we believe the increasingly unstable situation in Burma represents a threat not only to the people of Burma, but
also to international peace and security; as a result, the United Nations Security Council has an obligation to intervene.
There is great urgency in this request, as Burma continues to spiral into disaster. As reports make clear, Burma is ruled by one of the world's most brutal military juntas.
Abuses being committed by the military regime include:
1. Detaining the world's only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Aung San Suu Kyi.
2. Imprisoning and torturing opponents, including more than 1,100 political prisoners, thirteen of whom are fellow members of Parliament.
3. Using rape as a weapon of war.
4. Forcibly recruiting up to 70,000 child soldiers, far more than any other army in the world.
5. Causing at least 700,000 refugees, with more to come, to flee across Burma's borders into neighbouring countries.
6. Forcing Over 1/2 million persons are scraping out a living as internal refugees, surviving in the jungles and mountains of eastern Burma.
7. Burning or otherwise destroying 2,700 villages.
8. Forcing humanitarian aid organizations such as Doctors without Borders (France) and the UN's Global Fund on HIV/AIDs, Malaria, and Tuberculosis, to leave Burma as the junta refuses to permit them to carry out their work.
9. Maintaining Burma's status as the largest producer of illegal methamphetamines in Southeast Asia, causing devastation of individuals and families throughout the region.
10. Conducting a new military offensive against civilians of the Karen ethnic monitory, shooting unarmed civilians, including children, burning villages, using rape, torturing and mutilating people, and even beheading
people.
In recent years the United Nations has employed many diplomatic initiatives in relation to Burma. Two consecutive envoys from the UN Secretary General and four other special rapporteurs from the United Nations Commission on Human
Rights have failed to elicit reform from the regime. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called for democratic transition in Burma by 2006, but so far the regime has
failed to respond.
The United Nations is not the only body to have failed in its attempts at diplomacy with the military junta. The European Union has sent "troika" missions representing the EU requesting change in Burma, again to no avail. Burma's neighbouring countries, including Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Singapore have failed in bilateral diplomacy, and recent requests for change from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have been rebuffed.
The regime in Burma is clearly unwilling to respond to reasonable diplomatic requests. The responsibility for failure in these efforts lies solely with Burma's military junta, not with those governments working to help bring peaceful
change. However, the international community must recognise that this current impasse cannot be allowed to continue. It is now time for the United Nations Security
Council to intervene. It has the power to pass a binding resolution requiring the regime to engage in genuine negotiations and begin a transition to democracy in Burma.
There is ample precedent for a Security Council resolution on Burma. The Council has passed resolutions on many countries, including Haiti, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Liberia, when internal breakdown was underway.
In many of these countries the Security Council failed to act swiftly, resulting in many innocent lives being lost.
This must not be allowed to continue in Burma. The recent report, A Threat To The Peace, commissioned by former Czech President Vaclav Havel and South Africa's
Archbishop Desmond Tutu from the respected international law firm DLA Piper spelled out in detail the reasons why the Security Council should act, and the legal basis on which it can do so. The Havel-Tutu report proposes a multilateral approach at the UN Security Council that would require Burma's military regime to work with the
United Nations on a plan for transition. Since the report was produced, Resolution 1674 was unanimously adopted by the Council, giving further basis on which the Security Council can and should intervene.
At the December 16, 2005, United Nations Security Council briefing on Burma, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and his deputy Ibrahmi Gambari suggested the first-ever course of action on Burma at the Council. We support this suggestion and we urge the Council to adopt a resolution of the kind recommended by Mr. Havel and Mr. Tutu. This resolution should:
1)Require the government of Burma to work with the UN Secretary General in implementing a plan for national reconciliation.
2)Request the UN Secretary General remain involved in the reconciliation process and require him to report back to the Council on a regular basis.
3)Urge the Government of Burma to ensure the immediate, safe, and unhindered access to all parts of the country for the United Nations and international humanitarian organizations to provide humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable groups of the population, including internally displaced people.
4)Call for the immediate and unconditional release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners in Burma. Thank you for your attention to this most serious matter.
Yours faithfully