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Thursday, 10 December 2009 |
Calling for Genuine Political Reconciliation
Before Elections in Burma
We, the united voice of people, communities, and organizations from Burma and around the globe, strongly reaffirm the necessity for genuine political reconciliation before the 2010 elections and call on the international community to take immediate action to ensure viable democratic change occurs in Burma. The people of Burma are entitled to have a genuine choice and the international community has an obligation to ensure that the people get this choice.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 21) states, “The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government”; however, the military regime in Burma continues to use coercive measures to hold onto power. Activists, community leaders, journalists, and monks continue to be arrested and harassed for voicing independent thought. Villages continue to be subjected to crimes against humanity under the regime’s brutal policy of controlling ethnic communities. The regime continues to manipulate the political sphere in order to secure their victory in the 2010 elections – based on the 2008 Constitution that was crafted by the military regime in order to perpetuate impunity and prolong their hold on power. Inclusive solutions proposed by democracy and ethnic leaders have been discarded with severe persecution. Once again, the regime is poised to repeat its systematic use of force, manipulation, and corruption during the 2008 constitutional referendum.
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