Madam, – The decision by a Burmese court to delay the verdict in the trial of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi until August 11th has granted the international community an unlikely reprieve.
Powerful nations across the globe have a shameful record when it comes to protecting the human rights of the poorest of the poor and the casual indifference to this case is proof that nothing has changed.
Media scrutiny has transformed the Suu Kyi trial into a defining moment for the international community. If we allow the Burmese to imprison Ms Suu Kyi it will confirm what we already know; that global leaders continue to favour economic considerations and political greed over human rights and their moral obligation to come to the assistance of the most vulnerable people in our society.
Human rights abuses in Burma, and the consistent global press coverage generated by the illegal detention of Ms Suu Kyi, offers the international community no justification for standing idly by. Since the military junta assumed power in 1962, forced labour, human trafficking, child labour and sexual abuse are common in Burma and have been widely reported.
Ms Suu Kyi was first placed under house arrest over 20 years ago and has led a peaceful and dignified protest in the intervening period. This is despite earning the democratic right to be prime minister of her country in 1990; despite being separated from her late husband and her children and regardless of the fact that she has persistently been prevented from meeting international visitors and members of her own party.
Now, it seems certain that this advocate of non-violent resistance is to be imprisoned for up to five years for simply giving shelter to a sympathetic American man who swam to her lakeside home, where she has spent 14 of the last 20 years in detention.
The military junta has accused her of violating the terms of her house arrest by sheltering and feeding this individual, while it is painfully obvious that the incident is nothing more than a pretext to keep Ms Suu Kyi under lock and key and prevent her from gaining her freedom before the elections are held next year.
The fact that the human rights abuses, including the illegal incarceration of Ms Suu Kyi have been so widely reported and the global community continues to turn a blind eye is a shocking indictment of their supposed commitment to the welfare of the impoverished.
Attending human rights conferences, producing weighty pamphlets and denouncing crackpot leaders with bland and empty rhetoric is a fruitless exercise unless we decide to put our words into practice.
China wields a unique influence in Burma due to its relationship in trade and natural resources, but it has unremittingly declined to step in and force the military junta to improve human rights in the country. Even worse, the global community has failed to put pressure on China to do so.
If the Burmese decide to jail Ms Suu Kyi on August 11th, countries and political leaders across the world might as well throw their hats at human rights once and for all. There can be no more excuses. We cannot continue to fail people like Ms. Suu Kyi and the vulnerable people of Burma any more without admitting where our loyalties lie. The truth is the least they deserve. – Yours, etc,