By Zar Ni, Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com) October 22, 2003:

I left Burma at age 24 in 1988 with no idea of when I would see my country again. As a leader of the Burmese opposition, I frequently meet with friends on their way to Burma. How can I describe the envy I feel for the opportunity to set foot on the place that I love so much – a country that is barred to me so long as one of the most brutal regimes in the world remains in power.

Burma is a failed state held at gunpoint by the generals whose reckless economic policies including auctioning of the country’s natural resources such as rainforests and oil and natural gas reserves has made it the beggar of Southeast Asia. It is a regional time bomb with real potentials to disrupt peace and stability of Southeast Asia.

Although the Burmese have been victimized by the regime over the past 4
decades, having been subjected to numerous human rights atrocities including
being poisoned with pesticides in their paddy fields, they are not resigned to their fate as has been wrongly portrayed by some Burma watchers, and foreign journalists.

As a leader of the Burmese opposition and an exile of 15 years, I can attest
to the fact that our people are determined to fight for their own freedom, with or without international support. It is an oversimplification to assume that the 1,500 political prisoners simply “languish” in solitary confinements and inhumane jail cells. Many, if not all, choose to fight on by refusing to negotiate away their individual freedoms. The regime pressures them to go into exile, give up politics permanently, denounce the NLD and Aung San Suu Kyi or accept business licenses and exploit a corrupt economy. With very few resources and almost no political recognition, the ethnic minority communities, specifically the Karens, the Chins, the Karennis, the Shans and the Mons struggle on with their armed
resistance against what to them is an occupying power on their ancestral land.

Fifteen years after the pro-democracy movement that elected Aung San SuuKyi’s democratic opposition as the legitimate government of Burma, the situation remains at a crisis level. Under intense diplomatic and political pressure, the regime has moved Aung San Suu Kyi from a secret location in Rangoon to her own home under detention.

However, international sanctions and other punitive measures so far have not
coerced the regime to change its barbaric behavior nor convinced the regime
to begin negotiation with Suu Kyi and ethnic nationalities leaders.

Weakening the regime economically through sanctions coupled with diplomatic
and political pressure may be all the international community believes it can do in Burma. As an organizer who helped build the pro-sanctions grassroots campaigns since 1995, I can say it is not enough and will not end the human rights abuses and repression.

Any international attempt to help the Burmese help themselves must involve a
fundamental shift in the way the Burma problem is conceived. It is time for the international community to demand a fundamental change in the Rangoon
regime and shift its focus of support and initiatives to the Burmese resistance inside Burma.

The opposition movement and its international supporters must concentrate on
removing the regime or forcing it to negotiate a settlement with the democratic opposition. Despite some recent measures such as the United Nations resolutions, American economic sanctions, freezing of Overseas Development Aid by Japan, temporary halting of non-humanitarian assistance and a visa ban by the European Union, and a brief period of verbal intervention of ASEAN, the regime has remained intransigent and entrenched, as can be seen by the apparent failure of UN Special Envoy Razali Ismail to persuade Burma’s junta to free Aung San Suu Kyi.

Perhaps what the opposition movement needs most is cutting edge communications technology to maintain constant flow of information to and
from the activists on the front lines of the freedom struggle within Burma.

Most importantly, the international community must recognize that there is a
continuing armed conflict in Burma, which is taking a heavy toll in human
suffering and political instability. Humanitarian aid is urgently needed, but the aid must be delivered with the consultation of the NLD inside Burma and with the democratic armed resistance in the “open fire” zones of Burma.

The aid delivery must not undermine the fundamental mission of restoring
freedom and democracy there. That is, the regime must not be allowed to
manipulate humanitarian assistance to further its own political and institutional interests.

The fundamental obstacle to democratic transition in Burma is the tremendous
imbalance of power between those who wish to hold on to power at all costs,
and those who wish to reclaim and rebuild their country as a democratic union.

The first step toward resolving Burma’s political crisis requires taking concrete measures designed to shift the balance of power in favor of the democracy movement, forcing the leaders of the regime to recognize that the best option for themselves and for their families is a negotiated settlement.

No amount of international sanctions without a well-supported and highly
capable opposition movement will force the regime to negotiate with the
National League for Democracy, let alone hand over power to the last
democratically elected political party in Burma.

Dr. Zar Ni is founder and director of The Free Burma Coalition, one of the
Internet’s first and largest human rights campaigns. He is also a fellow in
the Rockefeller Foundation Next Generation Leadership Program.