Burma at 'Critical Moment' as Elections Loom

Burma will go to the polls this year for the first time in 20 years, however controversial election laws will mean that the country's most prominent democracy activist will be banned from taking part.

The Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been in some form of detention for the last 14 years, will be banned from taking part in the poll.

In the last election in 1990, the country's military junta was shocked after Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) won a landslide victory. The win came despite the fact that Suu Kyi was under house arrest and the country was under martial law. This time, the ruling generals are taking no chances.

Last week, the country released new electoral directives that will mean that anyone declared a “criminal” under the country's constitution will be barred from standing in the poll. Moreover, no members of political parties are allowed to stand as candidates.

On Monday, Tomas Ojea Quintana, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Burma (renamed Myanmar by the junta) said that the rules will stifle democracy. "Under these current conditions, elections in Burma cannot be considered credible," he told a news conference after presenting a report to the U.N. Human Rights Council.


No formal date has been set for the elections, although the favored day for superstitious senior general Than Shwe is believed to be Oct. 10, 2010 (10/10/10). It is also a month before Suu Kyi is due to be released from house arrest. Suu Kyi’s party, allowed to re-open regional offices that have been closed for seven years, is considering whether or not to boycott the election.

Burma has 2,100 prisoners of conscience in jail, among them 11 members of the NLD. Hundreds more have been jailed since a 2007 popular uprising that was led by monks. Quintana said that there was "no indication" that Burma was intending to release these political prisoners, and submitted a report urging a full inquiry into the regime's alleged abuses.

In his report, Quintana said, "The possibility exists that some of these human rights violations may entail categories of crimes against humanity, or war crimes under the terms of the statute of the International Criminal Court." Speaking to the Human Rights Council on Monday, Quintana noted that with elections being held this year, "Burma is at a critical moment in its history."

However, the country's ambassador to the U.N. Wunna Maung Lwin, said that the report was full of inaccuracies and "violates the right of a sovereign state." "We strongly condemn and reject these recommendations and the report as a whole," said the ambassador.

"My government has clearly stated that there are no prisoners of conscience and that those who are serving prison terms are (those) who offended the existing laws and regulations," he told the council. The issue was raised again on Wednesday, by Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo in a meeting with his Burmese counterpart, Nyan Win.

Romulo told reporters afterward that he was not satisfied with the conversation and would urge the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)— to which both Burma and the Philippines belong—to call for a reversal of the election decree, at the bloc's annual summit in Vietnam next month.
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