Burma UN 1105

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EUROPEAN POLITICIANS SAY
UN SECURITY COUNCIL MUST ACT NOW
ON BURMA SITUATION

By Michael Ireland

Friday, November 11, 2005

LONDON, ENGLAND (ANS) -- Two European politicians have recently visited Burmese refugees on the Thai-Burma border, and are calling on the United Nations Security Council to intervene in the growing humanitarian crisis in Burma.

Baroness Cox, a Deputy Speaker of the British House of Lords and Simon Coveney MEP, an Irish Member of the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee traveled to the Thai-Burmese border within a week of each other, as part of a fact-finding visit organized by Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW).

Baroness Cox, Honorary President of CSW-UK and Chief Executive of the Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART), has visited the Karen, Karenni and Shan people in eastern Burma many times.

On October 27, a day after returning from her latest visit to the Thai-Burmese border, she raised the issue in the House of Lords and urged the British Government to support initiatives to put the issue of Burma on the UN Security Council agenda, as proposed in a new report, "Threat to the Peace," commissioned by former Czech President Vaclav Havel and Nobel Laureate Bishop Desmond Tutu.

"I returned from the region yesterday, and can confirm from first-hand evidence that the suffering of the people of Burma caused by human rig hts violations by the [Burmese regime] is as grave as ever, and certainly as grave as that outlined in the compelling report [Threat to the Peace]," she told the House of Lords.

Coveney, the European People's Party spokesman on Human Rights, returned last week after gathering evidence of the continued use of forced labor, forced conscription of child soldiers, rape, destruction of villages and crops, torture and other violations. He visited Karen and Karenni refugees in Thailand, and Internally Displaced People in Karen State, Burma.

"This was my first visit to the Thai-Burmese border areas, and what I heard and saw confirms everything I had read in reports previously," said Coveney.

He added: "Gross violations of human rights continue to be perpetrated by the Burmese junta. I met people who had fled their villages because they faced constant forced labor, torture, rape and abuse at the hands of the Burma Army. This has gone on for too long and the world has turned a blind eye. It is time now for the inter national community to act."

In addition to visiting refugees, the two Parliamentarians met Thai politicians, including the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Senator Kraisak Choonhavan, and members of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus. The Caucus was established earlier this year and brings together Parliamentarians from South-East Asia to promote democracy and human rights in Burma.

CSW's report of the visit, released today, details evidence of continuing human rights violations in Burma. It quotes a Karen refugee who said: "The situation is getting worse day by day. If people stay in Burma, how can they get rice?"

There are over a million people internally displaced in Burma and more than 2,500 villages in eastern Burma have been destroyed since 1996.

CSW is a human rights organization which specializes in religious freedom, works on behalf of those persecuted for their Christian beliefs and promotes religious liberty for all.

For further information and a copy of CSW's full report, please contact Richard Chilvers, Communications Manager at Christian Solidarity Worldwide on 020 8329 0045 or email richard.chilvers@csw.org.uk or visit www.csw.org.uk

** Michael Ireland is an international British freelance journalist. A former reporter with a London newspaper, Michael is the Chief Correspondent for ASSIST News Service of Garden Grove, California. Michael immigrated to the United States in 1982 and became a US citizen in September, 1995. He is married with two children. Michael has also been a frequent contributor to UCB Europe, a British Christian radio station.