Burma: The situation in Burma should be taken up by the UN Security Council, a senior member of the Burmese government-in-exile said in Dublin. Bo Hla Tint, a minister in the Washington-based National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, said all democratic nations should urge the council to take action on the issue.
Mr Hla Tint said he and his colleagues had been forced into exile after the military regime in Burma/Myanmar refused to recognise the results of multiparty legislative elections in 1990 when his party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), won a landslide victory.
Today marks the 10th year in detention for NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and Freewoman of Dublin (2000) and Galway (2005). She is the only Nobel laureate in custody anywhere in the world. Burma Action Ireland, a solidarity group set up in 1996 to raise awareness of the situation in Burma, is holding a candlelit vigil at St Stephen's Green this evening at 5pm.
Mr Hla Tint said on a recent visit to Ireland that his party leader was "absolutely incommunicado" and it was "quite hard" even to get information about her state of health. He accused the regime of "systematic violations of human rights". The economic situation was rapidly deteriorating, he added. "The majority of people are living under the poverty-line."
The US had imposed economic sanctions and the European Union had placed visa restrictions on senior members of the military government which calls itself the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).
In a report last month entitled "Threat to the Peace: A Call for the UN Security Council to Act in Burma", Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former Czech president Vaclav Havel urged the Security Council to adopt a resolution requiring Burma/Myanmar to cooperate with the UN to achieve national reconciliation and restore democratic government.
The 70-page report accused the regime of torture, rape, forced relocation of ethnic minorities, and using 70,000 child soldiers. China and Russia have blocked moves against the Burmese regime at the Security Council. The Myanmar regime denounced the Tutu-Havel report which it said was "based on false information".