*EPF510 09/20/2002
Lawmakers Say Burma's Military Junta Continues to Commit Abuses
(Urge end to military rule and restoration of democracy) (660)

By Steve La Rocque
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington - In a series of speeches in the House of Representatives September 18, a group of lawmakers sharply criticized Burma's ruling military junta for continuing to suppress democracy and commit human rights abuses in its country.

"Today, September 18th, marks the 14-year anniversary of the Burmese military regime's bloody takeover of Burma, after gunning down an estimated 10,000 non-violent demonstrators throughout the country," said Representative Tom Lantos (Democrat of California), the ranking minority member on the House International Relations Committee.

"Since that awful day, the Burmese people, led by the courageous 1991 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, have against great odds never given up their hope, their belief, and their struggle for the kind of freedom we have enjoyed in this country," Lantos said, who is also the co-chairman of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus.

"This struggle was enshrined into political reality when Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy won a democratic election in 1990 with 82 percent of the seats in parliament -- a landslide election the regime has never recognized," said Lantos.

"We absolutely must lend our vocal public support to the Burmese people's struggle for freedom," he continued.

"It is time the United States and the international community see through the regime's smoke and mirrors and again move to increase concrete political and economic pressure," Lantos added.

"On September 18, 1988, the military forced its rule on the people of Burma, a rule that has been dominated by severe violence and oppression including rape, the enslavement of children, attacks on ethnic minorities, imprisonment and torture of democratic political opposition groups, and the destruction of homes and villages," Representative Joseph Pitts (Republican of Pennsylvania) said.

Pitts, who serves on the House International Relations Subcommittees on International Operations and Human Rights, is also the founder and chairman of the Religious Prisoners Congressional Task Force, and a member of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus.

"The people of Burma have struggled to survive under this brutal regime. On this day of tragic remembrance, the United States and the entire international community must come together to support and assist the Karen, Karenni, Chin, Shan and other people of Burma," Pitts said.

Rangoon's military rulers, he went on, do not limit their attacks to ethnic minorities, "but also brutally oppresses religious minorities."

The Burmese military, Pitts said, "invades villages, divides families through forced relocation, and uses rape and murder to subjugate the people."

Representative Benjamin Gilman (Republican of New York) said he urged Congress to "continue to pressure the regime until the aspirations of the Burmese people are fulfilled."

The chairman emeritus of the House International Relations Committee reminded his colleagues that in Burma, "a parliamentary chamber has not been filled with an electorate."

"If we turn our backs on Burma, if we don't speak out, and act, in support of those who chose democracy, we will be undermining all duly elected public officials, including ourselves," the New York Republican added.

Representative Gary Ackerman (Democrat of New York) backed Gilman, urging that Burma's military regime "be put on notice" that the United States would not forget September 18th, and that many lawmakers in Congress were "growing weary of the constant stalling and delaying of a full-scale political dialogue" in Burma.

Representative Lane Evans (Democrat of Illinois) focused on the military regime's rejection of "core labor rights including prohibitions on child labor, forced labor, and freedom of association."

Evans said the military uses a "system of sweatshops" to produce textiles for western markets.

"Even under strict quotas, Burmese textile exports have exploded into the U.S. market creating a direct source of hard currency for the military dictatorship," Evans said.

"Textile exports are the life support for the Burmese regime and we need a complete ban on Burmese exports until we see freedom and an end to slavery," the Illinois Democrat said.

He added that now was not the time to relax sanctions, but instead, time to "tighten the noose on one of the world's worst totalitarian governments."

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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