NEWS ANALYSIS
The Irrawaddy – Don’t Leave Ethnics Out of ‘Win-Win’ Deal
By SAW YAN NAING Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Change is said to be underway in Burma, as the country’s rulers appear to be relaxing their grip on the democratic opposition and taking a more conciliatory approach to their international critics. President Thein Sein has met pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Naypyidaw, and the UN human rights envoy to Burma, Tomás Ojea Quintana, recently concluded a rare visit to the country. Thein Sein has also reached out to exiles, urging them to return home, and Burma’s state-run media has stopped its ritual denunciation of the BBC, VOA and RFA.
So far, much of the discussion about these developments has focused on whether they really amount to anything. Clearly, in themselves, they are a far cry from the breakthrough that the people of Burma, and the world, have been waiting decades to witness. But already, there are some in the country who worry that they are in danger of being written out of this “history in the making”—if that’s what it is.
For Burma’s ethnic peoples, recent hints of a possible detente between the Naypyidaw-centered, military-backed government and the Rangoon-centered democratic opposition are cause for concern. Historically, ethnic minorities, who make up about a third of the population, have been marginalized by Burmese politics. Still struggling for their survival and their right to self-determination, they now worry that any “peace” achieved in the Burmese heartland may never extend as far as their own homelands.
While some prominent exiles consider returning to test the waters and people speak hopefully of a new era of cooperation between the government and opposition groups in the fields of social and economic development, the outlook for Burma’s ethnic minorities remains utterly devoid of optimism.
Since Thein Sein assumed power earlier this year, tensions that have been mounting since last year over the refusal of armed ceasefire groups to form “border guard forces” under Burmese military command have come to a head in Shan and Kachin states. Burmese offensives in areas under the control of Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the Shan State Army (SSA) have forced thousands of civilians to flee.
This depressingly familiar situation—for the past two decades, more than 140,000 war refugees have huddled in crowded camps on the Thai-Burmese border, and tens of thousands more have been forced to hide in the jungles inside Burma—has attracted remarkably little international attention, as all eyes now focus on events in the country’s centers of power.
Over the years, ethnic civilians have suffered countless atrocities at the hands of Burmese troops, including forced labor, rape, torture and murder. To some extent, this situation was mitigated by the ceasefire agreements that were reached in the 1990s between the Burmese army and an array of armed groups—the KIA, the SSA-North, the United Wa State Army, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, the New Mon State Party, and others—but at no point have Burma’s ethnic peoples enjoyed real peace and security.
Now that most of these ceasefire agreements have collapsed, the ethnic armies have demanded a withdrawal of government troops from their areas and new talks, this time involving an alliance of ethnic forces and leading to a nationwide ceasefire. Preferring to stick to the “divide and rule” tactics of the past, however, the government continues to push for one-on-one negotiations with individual groups.
It is deeply distressing for Burma’s ethnic peoples to think that their future may look very much like their past, no matter what happens as the country’s rulers move to co-opt the opposition.
As Moo Kay Paw, a Karen girl living in hiding in the jungle, put it with tears in her eyes: “I don’t understand my life sometimes. I ask myself why I was born to live in fear like this. We can be killed at any time, like animals. Why can’t we live with dignity, like human beings?”
So far, much of the discussion about these developments has focused on whether they really amount to anything. Clearly, in themselves, they are a far cry from the breakthrough that the people of Burma, and the world, have been waiting decades to witness. But already, there are some in the country who worry that they are in danger of being written out of this “history in the making”—if that’s what it is.
For Burma’s ethnic peoples, recent hints of a possible detente between the Naypyidaw-centered, military-backed government and the Rangoon-centered democratic opposition are cause for concern. Historically, ethnic minorities, who make up about a third of the population, have been marginalized by Burmese politics. Still struggling for their survival and their right to self-determination, they now worry that any “peace” achieved in the Burmese heartland may never extend as far as their own homelands.
While some prominent exiles consider returning to test the waters and people speak hopefully of a new era of cooperation between the government and opposition groups in the fields of social and economic development, the outlook for Burma’s ethnic minorities remains utterly devoid of optimism.
Since Thein Sein assumed power earlier this year, tensions that have been mounting since last year over the refusal of armed ceasefire groups to form “border guard forces” under Burmese military command have come to a head in Shan and Kachin states. Burmese offensives in areas under the control of Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the Shan State Army (SSA) have forced thousands of civilians to flee.
This depressingly familiar situation—for the past two decades, more than 140,000 war refugees have huddled in crowded camps on the Thai-Burmese border, and tens of thousands more have been forced to hide in the jungles inside Burma—has attracted remarkably little international attention, as all eyes now focus on events in the country’s centers of power.
Over the years, ethnic civilians have suffered countless atrocities at the hands of Burmese troops, including forced labor, rape, torture and murder. To some extent, this situation was mitigated by the ceasefire agreements that were reached in the 1990s between the Burmese army and an array of armed groups—the KIA, the SSA-North, the United Wa State Army, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, the New Mon State Party, and others—but at no point have Burma’s ethnic peoples enjoyed real peace and security.
Now that most of these ceasefire agreements have collapsed, the ethnic armies have demanded a withdrawal of government troops from their areas and new talks, this time involving an alliance of ethnic forces and leading to a nationwide ceasefire. Preferring to stick to the “divide and rule” tactics of the past, however, the government continues to push for one-on-one negotiations with individual groups.
It is deeply distressing for Burma’s ethnic peoples to think that their future may look very much like their past, no matter what happens as the country’s rulers move to co-opt the opposition.
As Moo Kay Paw, a Karen girl living in hiding in the jungle, put it with tears in her eyes: “I don’t understand my life sometimes. I ask myself why I was born to live in fear like this. We can be killed at any time, like animals. Why can’t we live with dignity, like human beings?”
No comments:
Post a Comment