Considering the fact that the United Nations is sending soldiers and money around the globe in an effort to right wrongs, it is ironic that little pressure has been placed on Burma, one of the most notorious violators of human rights. There are, unfortunately, numerous reports of abuses by the ruling military junta there.
The U.N. Commission on Human Rights has cited the regime for torture, summary executions, forced labor, abuse of women and politically motivated arrests and imprisonment of citizens. Some 70,000 refugees have already escaped into neighboring Thailand.Currently, Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the Burmese democracy movement and winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, is under house arrest in Rangoon - and has been for four years. She rose to prominence during a popular uprising in 1988 that the military crushed by shooting down thousands of protesters. In 1990, her political party won victory in the general elections, but the dictators refused to relinquish power.
Although various activists abroad have denounced the junta and demanded her release, the United States and the European Community have issued only limited economic sanctions. These do not stop giant American companies like Texaco and PepsiCo from operating there, as well as many firms from France, Great Britain, Canada, Holland and Australia.
The reason, obviously, is that Burma is not in the public eye. It has neither Kuwait's oil nor Bosnia-Herzegovina's strategic location.
Since foreign journalists have little access to Burma, the graphic images like those in Somalia and Bosnia, that often spur action are not available. That unfortunate fact does not make the problem any less serious.
The junta argues that "no unique model of human rights should be imposed on a given country," a theory supported by Indonesia and China, also regular abusers of human rights.
Incredibly, the junta even maintains a Washington lobbyist and periodically generates propaganda indicating that democracy is alive and well in Burma.
In fact, pro-democracy leaders remain under detention, and the relocations of villages, slave labor and forced conscription of people as military porters continues.
There is a genuine possibility that a mass exodus will occur similar to the flight in 1991 of about 265,000 Muslims from Burma's Arakan state into Bangladesh. It is time for the U.S. and the U.N. to wake up to the atrocities in isolated Burma.