Myanmar boots out Western
peacemakers By Marwaan
Macan-Markar
BANGKOK - Myanmar's ruling
generals have expelled a Swiss-based
conflict-resolution outfit, the latest indication
the hardline regime is backing away from outside
mediation of the country's political impasse.
The Geneva-based Center for Humanitarian
Dialogue, commonly known in diplomatic circles as
HD, has until the end of this month to vacate the
Yangon offices from where it has run a low-profile
political-reconciliation
program since August 2000. Leon de Riedmatten,
HD's Myanmar-based representative, was forced to
leave the country late last month when the ruling
State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) refused
to renew his visa.
"We were informed of
this decision verbally," Andrew Andrea, HD's head
of communications, said in a telephone interview
from Geneva. "We weren't shocked, but
disappointed. It will make our job more
difficult." The SPDC offered no explanation for
declining to extend the mediator's visa.
The move comes hard on the heels of Razali
Ismail's decision in early January to abandon his
post as United Nations special envoy to Myanmar
because of the military government's refusal of
his numerous requests to visit the country. With
HD's assistance, he had facilitated secret talks
in 2003 among junta strongman General Than Shwe,
former SPDC secretary No 1 Khin Nyunt, and
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Suu
Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has been under
house arrest since May 2003, after pro-government
thugs violently attacked and killed many of her
supporters while she was visiting her political
offices in the country's northern region. UN and
HD efforts to bring the two sides to the
negotiating table thereafter met with limited
success.
HD's departure significantly dims
hopes of a negotiated settlement and a return to
democracy, Myanmar-watchers say. The United
States, Britain and European Union member states
frequently consulted HD to assess the political
situation before forming new polices toward
Myanmar. "Many governments had a steady dialogue
with us because they knew we talked to all the
parties," Andrea said.
HD played an
instrumental role in the peace agreement signed in
August between the government and rebels in Aceh
province, Indonesia. The deal, which arguably
began with a HD-initiated dialogue in 1999,
brought to an end more than 25 years of an ethnic
insurgency, which claimed well over 10,000 lives.
HD has a track record of helping to
resolve conflicts in Indonesia, the Philippines
and Nepal, and is also currently vying to play a
mediating role in a conflict in southern Thailand.
The organization said it would consider working
out of Bangkok to continue its work in Myanmar.
Surin Pitsuwan, Thailand's former foreign
minister, who was involved in the Indonesian
reconciliation effort, said HD's approach "helped
create the right conditions for the subsequent
peace talks. It offered itself as a
non-threatening player from the beginning and then
worked on preparing the psychological conditions
for peace to be acceptable as a viable option.
"Stopping [HD's] work is another case of
the SPDC wanting to play hardball. They are
telling the world they don't want facilitation
from outside."
The SPDC's purge of its own
military intelligence apparatus in October 2004
indicated to many observers a move toward less
engagement and more isolation. Former military
intelligence chief Khin Nyunt, who was widely
viewed as agreeable to international involvement
in brokering a political solution with Suu Kyi and
the opposition, is now under house arrest for
undisclosed economic crimes.
A growing
number of international organizations have since
departed Myanmar because of lack of cooperation
with the government. In January, for instance, the
International Committee of the Red Cross stopped
its regular visits to the nearly 90 prisons in
Myanmar where most of the more than 1,100
political prisoners are being held.
In
August, strict travel restrictions imposed by
Yangon on international humanitarian organizations
working in Myanmar led the Global Fund to Fight
AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis to shut its
operations in the country, even as the country's
AIDS situation has reached epidemic proportions.
HD's eviction will likely further
undermine Myanmar's standing inside the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a
regional grouping that in recent years defended
the military regime from Western criticism.
Myanmar was admitted into the grouping in 1997,
but lately some member states have been having
second thoughts about that decision.
Singaporean Foreign Minister George Yeo
reflected that sentiment when he suggested in
parliament that Yangon's intransigence is leaving
the regional group little option but "to distance
ourselves" from the military regime.
ASEAN
- which also includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia,
Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and
Vietnam - has seen its credibility in the eyes of
the international community plummet in recent
years because of the embarrassment due to Yangon's
increasingly oppressive regime.
On
Tuesday, Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid
Albar told reporters in Kuala Lumpur that a
planned trip to Myanmar this month to monitor the
progress of democracy has been stalled by the
junta. Originally, he was to have made the trip in
January.
(Inter Press Service with
additional reporting by Asia
Times Online)
