This winter, AU students will go to:
- Colombia to look at displacement and development issues
- India to look at the Dalit Movement against the Indian Caste System
- Thailand/Burma Border to look at the Burmese Democracy Movement
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Welcome to American University's alternative breaks blog! This space will be a shared space for participants from all trips to post their thoughts and reactions to their experiences on their alternative break trips.
This winter, AU students will go to:
This winter, AU students will go to:
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Jodi Lipson, Thai-Burma Border, Winter 07-08
Here are some of the organizations we will be meeting with.
The Irrawaddy Newspaper (http://www.irrawaddy.org).
Its parent, the Irrawaddy Publishing Group, was established in 1992 by Burmese citizens living in exile and is not affiliated with any political party or organization. The Irrawaddy seeks to promote press freedom and access to unbiased information.
Empower (www.empowerfoundation.org) is a grassroots organization which offers support, assistance, and access to education for women workers in the entertainment industry.
Earthrights International (http://www.earthrights.org) combines the power of law and the power of people in defense of human rights and the environment. They specialize in fact-finding, legal actions against perpetrators of earth rights abuses, and training for grassroots and community leaders and advocacy campaigns.
The Democratic Voice of Burma (http://www.dvb.no) is a nonprofit Burmese media organization committed to responsible journalism.
Free Burma Rangers (http://www.freeburmarangers.org)
is a multiethnic, multi-faith humanitarian service movement aimed at bringing help, hope and love to people in the war zones of Burma.
In addition to relief and reporting, other results of the teams' actions are the development of leadership capacity, civil society and the strengthening of inter-ethnic unity. Over 90 multi-ethnic teams have been trained with 20 full time teams active in the Karen, Karenni, Shan, Lahu and Arakan areas of Burma.
The Shan Women’s Action Network (SWAN) (http://www.shanwomen.org) is a founding member of the Women's League of Burma, an umbrella women's organization of 11 women's groups from Burma. It aims to promote women's and children's rights, oppose exploitation of and violence against women and children; and work for peace and freedom.
The Moe Swe and Yaung Chi Oo Workers Union (http://yaungchioo.org) was founded in 1999 by Burmese student activists and migrant workers, with the goal of improving working and living conditions for the Burmese migrant laborers in the Mae Sot area of Thailand. Since then, it has mainly focused on in the field of protecting worker rights, providing rights education, supporting for health care and facilitating social activities.
The Karen Women’s Organization (http://www.karenwomen.org),
formed in 1949 and with a membership of more than 30,000 women, is a community-based organisation of Karen women working in development and relief in the refugee camps on the Thai border and with IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) and women inside Burma.
The Cynthia Maung and Mae Tao Clinic (http://www.maetaoclinic.org)
The Mae Tao Clinic (MTC) provides free health care for refugees, migrant workers, and other individuals who cross the border from Burma to Thailand. People of all ethnicities and religions are welcome at the Clinic.
Human Rights Education Institute of Burma (http://www.hreib.com/eindex.html) aims to empower people through human rights education to engage in social transformation and promote a culture of human rights for all.
The Assistance Association for Political Prisioners (Burma)
(http://www.aappb.org) assists families of political prisoners to visit their loved ones, supports prisoners by providing necessities such as food and medicine, monitors conditions in prisons, publicizes arrests, conditions and life stories of imprisoned political activists and artists, and advocates for change.
The Democratic Party for a New Society (http://www.dpns.org)
was formed in October 1988 to continue Burma's unfinished democratic struggle, which was suppressed by the brutal military regime. The DPNS, with a large support base amongst the youth, including students, has played a vital role in 1990s. countrywide.
The DPNS was the second largest party next to the National League for Democracy (NLD) led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, though it allies with the NLD, and is closely working for its political campaigns.
The Burma Lawyers Council
(http://www.blc-burma.org/
Mission Statement:
"By vigorously opposing all unjust and oppressive laws, and by helping restore the principle of the Rule of Law, the Burma Lawyers' Council aims to contribute to the transformation of Burma where all the citizens enjoy the equal protection of law under the democratic federal constitution which will guarantee fundamentals of human rights."
Objectives of the BLC:
o Promote and assist in the educating, implementating, restoring, and improving basic human rights, democratic rights, and the rule of law in Burma.
o Assist in the drafting and implementating a constitution for Burma, and in associated matters of legal education; and
o Participate and cooperate in the emergence of a Civil Society in Burma.
Background:
After the military seized power in Burma in 1962, and after the students' uprising on 7 July, the pro-democracy resistance movement against the military, consisted mainly of students who were committed to the path of armed resistance, and the townspeople of different levels of society, who were also committed to resisting the military- through various means at their disposal. In this society, the lawyers formed an integral part of the pro-democracy resistance movement.
In the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) era (1962-1988), where all private enterprise was nationalised and banned, the youth who sought to avoid employment as government servants in the military led BSPP, planned their alternative private professional employment, which resulted in a number of them studying law, and entering the legal profession.
The Lawyers in private practice, consisted of persons who's sole purpose for entering the legal profession was to secure a livelihood, and those actively sought to oppose the oppressive legal system and its laws, and to represent and assist the people who were suffering adversity, due to the oppressive legal system and its laws. In the legal profession, there were a large number of senior Lawyers who regularly represented the people who were arrested and prosecuted for their dissident activities against the military regime, and in doing so these Lawyers took an active stand against the military regime, and risked their own liberty.
During the BSPP era, Burma Bar Council and all lawyers' associations in the whole country have never at any time cooperated, or supported the activities of the BSPP.
During 1988, emergence of the Four Eights' mass movement, senior Lawyers of Burma Bar Council joined hands with the students and the people and actively took part in the uprising, and issued statements and declarations in support of the movement for democracy. Burma Bar Council's declarations and statements were a driving force for the lawyers all over the country to participate in the people’s uprising. The lawyers' associations in cities big and small, embraced the declarations and the statements of the Bar Council, joined the students and the people in their respective towns and districts, and actively took part in the uprising.
The Burma Lawyers' Council was established by Lawyers, who have actively opposed the military dictatorship and arrived in the revolutionary areas before and after the Four Eights' Uprising, and also Lawyers who have for various reasons ended up in overseas countries. The current political situation in Burma and overseas created the need for its formation to continue the lawyers' struggle, and from March 1994, a group of Lawyers working together became instrumental in forming the first Executive Council of the Burma Lawyers' Council on 20 October 1994, and a declaration was issued in this regard. It is Council’s aim to contact and communicate overseas Legal associations, and legal academic to obtain their advice, assistance and cooperation. It is also the aim of the Council to assist the democratic forces to the best of its ability in all legal matters, when such requests for assistance are made to the Council.
In Burma under the oppressive military dictatorship system, the unfair and oppressive laws, and the system of justice, the common people are denied their basic rights under the Rule of Law. It is the Burma Lawyers' Council's aim to vigorously oppose all such unfair and oppressive laws, and to restore the basic principles of the Rule of Law. We believe that only when the basic principles of the Rule of Law are put into practice and adhered to; it will assist and support the emergence of a modern, advanced, peaceful, and a new democratic Union in Burma.
SHWE Gas Project
http://www.shwe.org/
The SHWE Gas Movement is concerned with a natural gas pipeline project presently unfolding in Western Burma.
In cooperation with Burma's military junta, a consortium of Indian and Korean corporations are currently exploring gas fields off the coast of Arakan State in Western Burma. Discovered in December 2003, these fields--labeled A-1, or "Shwe" (the Burmese word for gold)--are expected to hold one of the largest gas yields in Southeast Asia. These Shwe fields are destined to become the Burmese military government's largest single source of foreign income.
However, for the people of Burma this project will likely bring more suffering than benefits. It is the opinion of the SHWE Gas Movement that the following issues are very likely outcomes if the pipeline project goes ahead unchecked:
Exploitation of the Voiceless
The Burma regime, rather than consulting the people, has a long history of giving orders regarding the development of the nation. Agreements with corporations are made behind closed doors without public knowledge. Questioning national development plans is considered as dissent and punished. Despite being one of the poorest states in Burma, our natural resource will be exported and income go directly to the military regime coffers in Rangoon, all by-passing the people.
Large-scale Human Rights Abuses and Militarisation
Because proper social and environmental impact assessments have not been carried out, the extent of the project's impact on the local population and environment can hardly be determined, but the Burmese military has a long history of environmental and cultural degradation.
Environmental and Cultural Destruction
Because proper social and environmental impact assessments have not been carried out, the extent of the project's impact on the local population and environment can hardly be determined, but the Burmese military has a long history of environmental and cultural degradation.
The Entrenchment of the Burmese Military Regime
Just as the Yadana and Yetagun projects provided a context for the Burmese military regime to extend its reach into minority and opposition areas, so too is the Shwe project providing an excuse to further militarize and exploit the frontier areas of Arakan and Chin state. Meanwhile, when the money from this project begins flowing into the junta's coffers, this will only increase the military's grip over the rest of Burma.
Burma's current state of affairs is well known. The regime's poor human rights record has led most governments and many international organisations and institutions to condemn Burma's state terror and pass sanctions and investment bans against the country. This approach, also supported by the majority of Burma's opposition movement and Nobel Peace Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, is meant to apply economic and political pressure on the regime and kick-start a process of democratisation.
At the same time, several countries, such as the regional neighbours Thailand, India, China and Malaysia, promote constructive engagement with the regime as opposed to international isolation. According to their arguments, constructive engagement will promote economic development, integrate the country into the international community, and eventually instigate a full transfer to democracy.
To date, however, progress in democratisation and human rights is yet to show, which seriously questions the viability of constructive engagement. Indeed, most foreign investment and development projects have caused more suffering than good because of the direct involvement of Burma's military. Thus, as argued by the Nobel Laureate and winner of the 1990 elections in Burma, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, "until we have a system that guarantees rules of law and basic democratic institutions, no amount of aid or investment will benefit our people."
We, the SHWE Gas Movement, ask the governments and corporations involved to halt the project until there is assurance that the people of the whole of Burma and Western Burma in particular can participate in the decision-making process and benefit from this project and not suffer the same fate as the people affected by the Yadana and the Yetagun pipelines. We ask you for your support in achieving this goal.
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