Morung Express News
Dimapur | August 29
Against the backdrop of escalating situation in Burma over the sharp fuel price rise, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) iterated its call for firm and deliberate action by the United Nations on Burma, emphasizing that it should be done “now, today”. The Commission in a press communique charged the United Nations with inaction even as the volcanic situation in Burma enters the second week. The Commission made known that despite the open letter of August 24 calling on the Secretary General of the United Nations to take intervention in the worsening situation in Burma, the people from all parts of the world were asking why the UN has so far sat on its hands.
Mere fleeting expressions of concern by the Secretary General and High Commissioner for Human Rights had only served to boost the confidence and further reassured the dictatorship that yet again “empty rhetoric” was all that the UN had to offer its fifty million long-suffering people, continued the statement by AHRC. The Commission said that besides the UN other multilateral agencies, notably the European Union, deserved criticism for the complete lack of timely and meaningful intervention at this critical time.
The AHRC has proposed that the Secretary General and High Commissioner each call urgent strategy meetings with concerned personnel and informed advisers, those who know what is actually going on in the country, to discuss and propose immediate steps. “It also echoes calls for an emergency session of the Security Council to be held on the same, as the consequences of the recent hikes in prices will under any circumstances have ramifications for the region”, the statement added.
Meanwhile the protests against the rise in fuel price in Burma is reported to continued unabated despite constant arrests and harassment of demonstrators and their leaders by plain-clothed police, government officials and gangs of thugs mobilised for the purpose, while soldiers are reported to be watching and waiting in the wings in case events prove uncontrollable. The protests have now spread to parts of at least six out of the country’s 14 states and divisions, and for the first time members of the Buddhist monastic order have come out to protest as well.
The press communique stated that it could now no longer be denied that the present conditions could ignite another mass uprising against Burma’s atrocious military regime. Since virtually all of the leaders from the initial protests after the unannounced August 15 price hike were now in illegal detention, it was clear that the continued rallies are not being organised through any one group or body of leaders but rather are an expression of deep and swelling resentment at the army government, it added. The AHRC earnestly called upon concerned fellow members of the public everywhere to lobby their governments to act, “before it is again too little, too late for Burma”.
The AHRC communicated confidence that the genuine interest among other ordinary persons throughout the world, and global popular outrage at the happenings there today could be translated into strong demands upon representative governments for a unified and coherent response to these events which would make a big difference between survival and disaster for the people of Burma.
