Burmese woman in exile to represent CSO at ASEAN summit

by Salai Pi Pi, Mizzima News, Tuesday, 20 October 2009.

New Delhi (Mizzima) – A Burmese woman activist in exile will represent Burmese Civil Society Organisations (CSO) at the 15th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit to be held in Hua Hin, Thailand in the weekend.

Khin Ohn Mar, coordinator of the Burma Partnership and a member of the Task Force on ASEAN and Burma (TFAB), said she has been chosen to represent the Burmese CSOs to join the summit after Burmese government NGOs including the junta-backed Myanmar Women’s Affair Federation (MWAF) said they did not wish their representative to speak on human rights issues in Burma.

“I have been chosen to be the representative at the Summit. We have the responsibility to talk about the plight of Burmese refugees and displaced people - displacement caused by the Burmese Army’s attacks on ethnic groups along the border,” Khin Ohn Mar said.

She said pro-regime NGO groups from Burma initially disagreed with the idea of exiled CSOs joining the 10 country bloc’s summit, fearing that they may raise the issues of human rights and how the military regime suppresses its people and reveal the true situation of Burma.

“The ASEAN summit is the place to reveal and openly discuss the situation in Burma in terms of democracy, human rights, politics, economics, social and cultural problems,” Khin Ohn Mar said.

“The representatives of the regime do not want to raise these issues in the summit,” she added.

However, Khin Ohn Mar said, she is not sure if the junta’s delegation led by Prime Minister Gen Thein Sein will protest her participation at the Summit.

In accordance with the ASEAN’s new charter, Civil Society Organisations in ASEAN met at the ASEAN People’s Forum/ASEAN Civil Society Conference in Cha-am, Thailand, on October 18 to 20, and decided on a representative to attend the ASEAN Summit.

TFAB was also among the CSO’s participating at the Cha-am meeting. The group called on ASEAN to address the Burmese military junta’s violations of the grouping’s new charter.

The APF/ACSC has been set up to effect a change for interaction between civil society and ASEAN senior officials in the summit.

APF’s press release issued on Tuesday said, the Burma issue had dominated the final day of conference as civil society representatives singled out Burma for its systematic human rights violations and called for the release of all political prisoners including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and for genuine political dialogue between democracy groups, ethnic nationalities, and the regime.

Ashin Sopaka, a Burmese monk, during a press conference, called ASEAN’s policy of non-interference “out of date” as the governments of ASEAN had neglected the people of ASEAN and failed to address the situation in Burma.

The APF, in a conference in February this year, decided to raise the Burmese issue at the Summit and choose a Burmese representative to represent it at the Summit.

“The resolution includes issues such as rejection of the regime’s 2010 election unless the 2008 constitution is revised and the immediate release of political prisoners including Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and a halt to use of child soldiers and rape against women,” Khin Ohn Mar said.